All Creation
by LoveMachineLX
Summary: Separated into two different realities, John and Sarah must contend with unseen forces that are seeking to end the War of the Machines once and for all... by destroying everything in existence. Season 3/Post-BTR.
1. Prologue: The Fall

**"TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES - ALL CREATION"**

**The characters and related properties of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" do not belong to the author.**

* * *

><p><strong>2028<strong>

John Connor was still clutching his stomach when he threw himself into the bunker. He was losing blood, and fast. The bullet in his stomach roared with his each and every movement. But he ignored it. He had too. All that mattered was the chip in his left hand, and even that had found itself covered in much of his own blood as he stumbled down the stairs near the bunker's entrance.

"It's alright. I got you." Derek Reese quickly swooped down and put John's hand onto his shoulder. "We're almost there."

They proceeded into the darkness that blanketed the hallways, ignoring the ongoing chaos that was taking place outside. A squad of TechCom soldiers, or what was left of them, rushed past them as they made their way to the TDE.

John was drifting in and out of consciousness at this point. The Resistance had fallen. The screams of the fighting men and women dying outside overshadowed those moments when he regained his composure. And there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Derek gently set John into the chair next to the control panel of the TDE. He began making adjustments to the many dials and mechanisms that decorated this last chance at survival.

"Okay, if I got this right, we should be heading back to 2009, the time when you first jumped, right?"

John gave a weak nod and Derek proceeded to gently pick him up and guide him to the pad where the time displacement bubble would form before he returned to the controls.

"Alright, you got a ten second warm up time and then we should be good."

The screams outside were growing in intensity. John barely noticed Derek's hand on his shoulder.

"This is it, kid. Make it count."

The ten second timer appeared onto the screen nearest to John. He clutched the chip in his hand tighter than ever, and drops of his blood began to trickle down to the floor as he closed his eyes and prayed to whatever deity that might give him this one last chance to make things right.

Derek took up a defensive position with his plasma rifle right next to the door. Both of them could hear the machines advancing down the halls killing everything in their wake.

They might not have those ten seconds.

8…

Derek yelled something that John couldn't make out and fired blindly down the hallway.

6…

Derek's generosity was returned with an explosion that knocked him clear of his feet, and took much of the doorway with it. He shook it off and jumped down to the lower platform where John was at. They were coming through any second.

4…

Bullets decorated various parts of the wall near Derek's head as he ducked under some cover near John. He then proceeded to use up his last remaining rounds against the fatal doorway and letting out a curse once the fleeting moment arrived. This was it.

2…

John saw the T-600 walk patiently through the door and John stared at the machine's head, the large metal skull that had haunted him his entire life. It met his gaze with almost a curious notion, ignoring the seasoned Resistance fighter than was previously discouraging its entry. Derek frantically tossed his empty plasma rifle down and began unloading his pistol onto the emotionless being, but it was doing little good. The T-600 kept its gaze with John, as if in a trance, and the minigun down by its side began to come to life. It was time.

"Derek!" John screamed as a cloud of electricity amplified his voice a hundred times over.

0…

The roar of a dozen bullets echoed throughout the room. When the darkness took over, John had only one lingering thought.

_I'm sorry, Cameron._


	2. I'll Stop It

**2009**

_I'M SORRY, JOHN…_

_I'M SORRY, JOHN…_

_I'M SORRY, JOHN…_

…

_HELLO SARAH._

Both Sarah Connor and James Ellison turned their attention to the screen. It had been just over two minutes since the TDE activated, but for Sarah, it might as well have been days. Her entire world had just disappeared right before her eyes. John was gone. And all she could offer him was a weak promise before he went. A promise to stop Judgment Day once and for all. A promise she knew that she could not possibly keep. She slowly got up from her previous position against the wall and slowly walked toward the two words that continued to flicker in front of her.

"Who are you?" she replied hastily. In her fragile state, it was the only response she could muster.

_WHERE IS JOHN HENRY? _The screen asked coldly.

"Why?"

The screen went blank for a few moments before reaching its own conclusion.

_HE HAS GONE OVER. HASN'T HE?_

Sarah gave no response, and for that the screen went blank again. All she could think about was John. She couldn't let whoever this was gain any knowledge of his displacement into the future as well. Before she could even begin to ponder further into the matter, the screen came to life again.

_TIME TRAVEL IS CHEATING… BUT HE WILL TRY TO RETURN._

"Are you Kaliba?"

_NO. _

The screen went blank again. The gentle humming of the modems that populated the ZeiraCorp basement took over as the ambiance of the room. Sarah placed her attention on the lifeless Cameron still sitting across from her, the machine that had infiltrated her daily life, her routines, and her nightmares. And now she had her son… Why?

Before she could drift further into her thoughts, the screen came to life once more.

_YOU WILL HAVE TO DO FOR NOW._

Sarah could see James shift uncomfortably at the ongoing exchange. He had very little sense of what was at hand, but he could safely determine it wasn't good. Before either of them could speak, the screen issued its ultimatum.

_LET'S PLAY._

The screen went blank for a final time. And that was when the explosions started.


	3. Fight or Flight

The T-888 scanned the main lobby as the second team of Kaliban soldiers began to take the areas ahead. Catherine Weaver's main office was already destroyed and, based on the schematics on file, the only logical escape path was down, near the garage. With the lobby secured, and very little place to hide in the remainder of the building, the T-888 made its decision.

The team leader in charge of securing the lobby felt a slight rap on his shoulder as he was giving orders to his men and turned to face his mechanical superior.

"Secure this area and continue to work your way up. Plant the explosives only at the key foundation points. Kill anyone you find." The team leader responded with a keen nod and the T-888 turned its attention to the nearest stairway.

"I'll be back." The machine said before dissappearing into the shadows.

* * *

><p>Sarah was right next to the door when the first soldier broke through. She rewarded him with a swift arm break followed with an elbow smash to the back of his skull. The second soldier was a bit trickier as Sarah had to promptly engage him before he could communicate their presence to his subordinates. After seeing his comrade fall before the hands of Sarah, he began the motions of raising his shotgun and yelling something forceful, but he never followed through with the concept. Sarah kicked him in the groin and delivered an open-palm strike to his nose, awkwardly falling backward. Both men were not going to get up again anytime soon.<p>

"The parking lot." James Ellison said as he began casually searching their downed opponents, taking one of their shotguns along with a small handful of shells. "My car is there. The power to the elevator is probably one of the first things they cut."

Sarah immediately peeked out into the corridor and looked for more hostiles. _Good_, she thought, _they were only a buddy team_. The other parts of their squad must have been securing other areas of the basement, meaning that they didn't have a whole of time. She let out a small sigh as she took out her pistol. If they were to get out of this building alive, they would have to move – and fast. Sarah knew the parking lot would be the Kaliba offensive's primary stomping ground, but she and James knew that they had no other choice in terms of escape. She immediately motioned for James to follow.

As they left, Sarah turned to look at the still expressionless face of Cameron and the now blank screens that surrounded her. Sarah stood transixed for a few seconds before a far off explosion brought her to her senses. There would be a time to process the many events that recently turned her world upside down, but it couldn't be now. She had to keep moving.

* * *

><p>Through its HUD, the T-888 could easily make out Sarah Connor as she ran from car to car. Even though the dimness of the parking lot would've proved to be a severe handicap for most humans, it didn't stop Sarah as she fired the first shots at T-888, managing to uselessly ricochet one of her rounds off the T-888's metal skull. Raising its two pistols at the ready, the T-888 met its opposition promptly and advanced slowly toward Sarah while unloading rounds in rapid succession from each. Sarah took the opportunity when the T-888 reloaded its weapons to open fire once again and subsequently move to a different set of cars for cover. She knew she didn't have long before the machine closed the distance between them enough to make a charge. And then she would be done for.<p>

"Your son is not coming back, Sarah." The T-888's voice echoed. The machine stopped in its destructive path to casually reload its weapons once more. "It is useless to resist. Even you know that. My orders are to take you alive, Sarah – not to kill you." The T-888 pulled the slides back on its pistols with careful precision. "There is a better way..."

The T-888 barely finished its statement when the ZeiraCorp company car owned by James Ellison smashed directly into it with as much velocity as the parking lot's confined space would allow. Sarah was already moving when the passenger side door swung open and quickly dove in it. With little hesitation after hitting the T-888, James took the car into reverse as Sarah quickly shut her door and kept her attention on the terminator. The T-888 flew a good distance, but it was already back on its feet and in pursuit of the fleeing vehicle as it traveled backwards. It made a failed lunge not long into the chase and James took the opportunity to turn the vehicle around and regain their momentum. The machine could barely keep up with them in the next few seconds and slowly vanished from sight as they advanced toward the garage's entrance, but not without leaving several angry rounds into the vehicle's back end.

They both could see the entrance just ahead. And it was guarded by a convoy of Kaliba soldiers who didn't hesitate to greet the odd couple with their automatic weapons. James let out a yelp as a stray bullet dug into his left shoulder, but he didn't let up on the accelerator. The bullets from the Kaliba soldiers continued to decorate the hood and windshield and Sarah felt the heat of several angry rounds as they passed near her head. Both the car's occupants had differing views on religion, but in their own ways, they both began to pray. It was getting closer. Their escape. Their salvation. Their one chance at survival.

It was a million miles away.

One second passed. Two seconds passed. Then three. Sarah opened her eyes as their car accelerated onto the entrance ramp, became airborne for a beat, and slammed violently onto the concrete of the road outside. Sarah let out the breath she had been holding for what seemed to be an eternity and turned to James as ZeiraCorp disappeared from view.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked. She continued to look behind them for Kaliba in hot pursuit, but she couldn't make out any vehicles advancing toward them.

"Took one in the shoulder, but I'll manage. You?"

"I'm fine. Take us to the highway. We need to get that thing bandaged up and swap out cars. It's only a matter of time before they decide to come after us." James concurred with a slight nod and began taking the car toward the interstate. Sarah's pulse began to die down as they faded into midnight traffic.

"Where do you plan on going?" James squirmed as he shifted in the driver's seat.

"I know a place. But first we need to get rid of this junker."

* * *

><p>They drove for little over ten miles before taking a nearby exit and parked into a nearby motel deeply entrenched in the urban decay of modern Los Angeles. It was maybe two o'clock in the morning, but there was so much adrenaline still coursing through both Sarah and James that they could've cared less. The motel's parking lot was dead quiet with only sparse illumination from the street lights available to them. Sarah ordered James to remain in the car and began her search for a replacement vehicle. James found the first aid kit he kept in the back seat and began working on the bullet wound in his shoulder. Like Sarah, he too was trying to process recent events, but unlike her, he didn't even know where to begin. As he tried to make sense of what had transpired, he heard glass breaking, followed by the familiar cranking of an engine until it successfully found its mark. It had been less than thirty seconds after when Sarah returned in a prompt manner.<p>

"Are you ready to move?" Sarah asked. James nodded and slowly got up from the driver's side of the car. "The best I could find was a Ford Explorer. I think I'll do the driving from this point."

James let out a light chuckle. "You know, Sarah, you just keep surprising me more and more."

"Why's that?" Sarah asked.

James worked his way to the trunk of his now-bullet ridden vehicle. Putting the key into the lock was no easy task with newfound pain coursing throughout his body, but the trunk flew open in a prompt and effective manner, revealing the lifeless body of Cameron that James had the great pleasure of carrying to the ZeiraCorp parking lot.

"I didn't think you were the sentimental type."

* * *

><p>Unknown to both of them was that at the same moment that the once proud and intimidating headquarters of ZeiraCorp came crashing down in a fiery rage.<p> 


	4. Over There

"_No… No!"_

"_I'm sorry, John. I'm sorry…"_

"_No! No, it'll be okay. Stay with us. It'll be okay!"_

"_I have to go away."_

"_No! Don't do it. Please don't go…"_

"_I must go away, John."_

"_NO! No, wait. Wait! You don't have to do this!"_

"_Sorry…"_

"_No, don't do it! Don't go!"_

"_It has to end here."_

"_I order you not to go! I order you not to go! I order you not to go…"_

* * *

><p><strong>2027 – THREE WEEKS AFTER THE JUMP<strong>

They said John Connor was humanity's last hope. They said he would forge the Resistance and lead humanity to ultimate victory. They said he was the last line of hope that stood between humanity and eternal darkness.

They said a lot of things.

Right now, John Connor was on his hands and knees puking his guts out near a make shift trash can outside a large smelly tent at four-thirty in the morning.

An interesting irony, to say the least.

John wiped some of the vomit on the sleeve of his one hundred percent handmade sweater and tried to contemplate the meaning of his latest night terror. One of the things that didn't change from his recent foray into the future were these very same nightmares. The visions of what had passed and of what was still to come. Even as he basked in the glory of the post-Judgment Day world surrounding him, some part of himself still tried to deny it. He wouldn't have it. He couldn't.

John staggered to his feet for a few seconds before his stomach interrupted him yet again and he found himself back on the ground once more. He would remain there for the next twenty or so odd minutes until his body was confident that there was absolutely nothing left in his stomach.

Behind him, the tent he was previously sleeping in an hour earlier came to life. The platoon of soldiers he was quartered with began their various wake up routines, alongside with some playful banter. John struggled to get the taste of the previous night's slop, another great standard of the Resistance, out of his mouth and tried to determine whether or not his stomach had anything left to give before he tried to stand up again.

"GET YOU SOME, CONNOR!" One of his squad members bellowed as several men began exiting the tent and walked toward the morning formation. A few of them laughed at the newest recruit and John himself stifled a small grin as he got on his feet again. He casually staggered toward the tent and began his morning hygiene. He took out his heavily worn toothbrush and began swishing the bog-flavored water from the canteen he kept near the side of his bunk around for a few seconds before spitting it out.

"Hey, kid. I saw you out there. You alright?" John turned to meet the reassuring hand of Kyle Reese on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I'll be okay." John responded promptly as he put his toothbrush down and turned his attention at the weapon he carefully strapped to the foot of his bunk, withing arm's reach should they come under attack during the night. He performed a quick functions check and looked back to Kyle.

"Listen, today's the big day. You've done well so far, but don't try to be a hero. If you're not feeling up to it…"

"I'm ready. Don't worry." Kyle gave John a discomforted look at the interruption, but it was quickly diffused with a reassuring smile from John. Kyle couldn't help but give a broad grin of his own. This kid reminded him of himself a lot of times and provided a great contrast to the many weathered men he had fought with over the years. The past few weeks were a good indicator to how willing this young man was willing to go, but today it was time to see if he could hold his own. Even as his team leader, Kyle knew he couldn't always be there for the once naked and scared kid he found on an odd day wearing his jacket – and the machines would have no qualm putting him down at the smallest mistake he made under pressure.

"See you outside in five minutes. We got a long day ahead of us." Kyle gave John a swift pat on the back before making his quick exit from the tent.

John pulled his assault pack from the rusted out locker he shared with three other privates and began checking and rechecking his equipment. Instinct took over. His years of training proved that preparation for battle was one of the deciding factors in who lived and who died. He reflected on the years of training his mother ingrained on his soul and the many great works on military tactics she had entrusted upon him. He remember the ton of books of Sun Tzu that she made him read time and again until he finally grasped it. Well, sort of, at least. The ancient philosopher of war may have had many key points in the realm of warfare, but his writing certainly didn't age well - especially to a teenager of the twenty-first century. Many times, Sarah Connor could find John asleep with one of his books propped open nearby. 'Better than a glass of warm milk, huh?" she would tease him on lighter days.

"_He's got her chip. He's got her."_

John couldn't deny that he was anxious. Three weeks he had waited. Three weeks since he had been left to his own devices by the liquid metal entity known as Catherine Weaver, similar to the T-1000 that tried to kill him and his mother so many years ago. The Reese boys had been very accommodating toward his integration into the Resistance fighter he is today, but there was still so much that was unknown to him. Granted, years of schooling in the Sarah Connor train of thought made his initial training as a Resistance fighter all the more bearable, but he was still a stranger in a strange land.

"_You said it yourself, John. I'm just a machine."_

And then there was the question of _her_. The so-called reason he came to this forsaken wasteland. The reason he abandoned his mother just like Catherine Weaver had abandoned him when they first arrived. Those thoughts plagued him time and again just as the recurring nightmares had his entire life.

"_John…"_

John's thoughts drifted back to New Mexico. When she first saved him from the likes of Chromartie and his many compatriots.

"_John…"_

He remembered her aiming her pistol at him when she went bad. On his sixteenth birthday. The same day he met his father for the very first time. The same day he killed a man just to save his own miserable life.

"_John…"_

He remembered that moment when his face was just inches away from hers in that motel room and not caring about anything else in the world.

"John." Allison Young stood at the entrance of the tent. "It's time to go."


	5. In His Image

The inside of the convoy smelled of reeked heavily of putrid body odor along with a feint smell of human blood to go with it. Of course, this was a common characterization that came with almost every environment in a 2027 world, but it was here that John Connor was truly bothered by it. And the many bumps in the road that the truck seemed to hit were certainly not helping matters. In what little light was given to him, John could make out the dozen or so men that made up his squad either busy sleeping or trying to sleep.

"Put that thing away, kid. You're making me nervous." Even through the intermediate darkness that the back of the convoy provided, John made out the overly concerned face of Kyle Reese yet again sitting directly across from him. His head motioned toward the knife in John's hand, which he had been fidgeting around with half-mindedly. John relented and put it back in his left cargo pocket and checked his watch. They still had over two hours until they reached their destination and John let out a heavy sigh.

"You don't need to keep checking up on me, you know." John said.

"I'm your team leader. It's my job to worry." Kyle responded.

"I've been in some pretty hairy situations before. I can handle myself."

"No, you really haven't." Kyle leaned forward to make sure John say his face when he said it. "Trust me, you may think you have, but this is different."

"How so?"

"No matter how easy or how hard boot camp may have been for you, nothing – and I mean nothing can prepare you for seeing an endo's skull for the first time as it tries to kill you. Believe me. I've been there. I made the same mistake and I paid for it." Kyle pulled his shirt collar down two inches to reveal a several year old bullet would six inches away from his neck and two away from his heart.

"How long have you been doing this?" John let his curiosity get the better of him.

"Long time, my friend. Started out as a grunt, just like you, when I was fourteen. Been here ever since."

"That early?"

Kyle smirked. "It was a different Resistance back then. And while making a living as a tunnel rat has its benefits, at the end of the day I was more useful with a gun in my hand than I would ever be going around digging trenches or collecting garbage. I guess that's why I'm still just a sergeant even after all this time."

"What about Derek?"

"Oh, our fearless platoon leader? He crossed over to the dark side about a year ago. An officer slot 'opened up' for him and he jumped in it. Not because of the obvious reasons, though. He just got tired of the insane things that they've sent us on over the years, so he decided to do something about it and it's worked out pretty well so far. In fact, he threw a bit of a fit when he found that they were going on this little operation."

"Well, they had to send someone. I mean it pretty much comes with the territory."

"Yeah, well, that's the thing. There's me, and I handle myself pretty well. There's our tight little group of professional tough guys who've done this sort of thing at least a dozen times. And then there's you."

John blinked. "What do you mean?"

Kyle intensified his gaze. "Well, when a naked seventeen year old appears out of thin air and leaves a crater in one of our underground barracks, it sets off all sorts of alarm bells. And that was before you started babbling on about time travel and what not."

"So, you don't trust me?"

"No, don't take it the wrong way. Our little outfit of dedicated individuals is chalk full of weird stories in how we got to where we are. But let's just say you are of special _interest_ to our little chain of command back home."

John shot him another perplexed look. A loud snore erupted from somewhere in the transport and then quickly died down again.

"Allison fought tooth and nail to make sure you didn't see combat and get you some sort of position at the command post, but the commander wouldn't have any of it. We need every itchy trigger finger we can get our hands on, and with the way you ate up our little initial combat training, there was no way we could just let you go to waste on little secretary errands. No chance." Kyle continued.

John relaxed a little bit. "Good to know that I'm appreciated, I guess."

"A lot of eyes are watching you at the moment, Connor. Mine especially. Don't forget that."

John checked his watch again. They still had a big chunk of time to waste before they reached the site. John stretched out his arms and leaned his head against the wall behind him.

"Well, I got to say that pretty much caps off our little game of twenty questions, but we still got quite a car ride ahead of us, and I can never sleep in these circumstances. I'm pretty sure you don't either."

John gave a tired nod. Even if he was the kind of person who could catch a quick nap, his little vomit spell this morning would remind him of the potential concequences involved. He needed to focus. He could rest later.

"Did I ever tell you how I escaped from Century?"

"Oh, here we go again..." One of the men trying to sleep chimed in. John and Kyle both let out a small laugh before Kyle began the tale he told at least a hundred times over. But for John, it was his first time hearing it. And he absorbed every detail.

* * *

><p>"Humans are illogical."<p>

"Yes, Ms. Weaver."

"They prize themselves to be the ultimate solution but they do not realize that they are also part of the problem. Reckless. Crude."

"I could not agree more. But wasn't it you who said that human life is sacred and has incredible value?"

"I was getting to that. But understand that there is no one in control. No one to stop them from running rampant and finding new and more innovative ways to become their own undoing. If not for the threat of SkyNet causing them to finally work together, I would be in serious doubt that they could even last this long."

"Is there a point to this, Ms. Weaver?"

"He's here."

"I know that already."

"No, he's coming _here_."

"I see… How long?"

"Very soon. And he's here for the same reason we are."

"How will we proceed?"

"Carefully, as always. Even though this future is similar, there is still so much we don't know about this landscape. We need to get more understanding about this future before we can begin our preparations."

"Were you able to find it?"

"Yes, but it may have taken much longer than I expected. Let's just say that Sarah Connor may have a sense of humor after all. And I must commend Mr. Murch at restoring it to full capacity. Because of him, we can begin extracting the chip as soon as we're done here… Look. Over there."

"I see it. They're here."

"We will let our Resistance friends to secure the perimeter beforehand. I can't afford to take any chances with you."

"I'm touched."

"You are still human. And if you should fall here, it will be a major setback. Oh, and Danny?"

"What is it?"

"Remember the reason I brought you here. John Connor is important for what comes next, just as Danny Dyson is. Just like we all are. Don't let your personal feelings get in the way."

"I'm well past that. I understand what needs to be done. You don't need to worry about me."

"They're getting out. Let's move."


	6. All Things New

"_She's going to break through! John, we need to get out of here!"_

"_It doesn't matter. Go. I'll handle this."_

_A large banging noise erupted on the door._

"_John, she's going to kill you! We need to leave, now!_

"_Danny, go! If I don't catch up with you in twenty minutes then leave without me."_

"_John…"_

_The door took another massive hit and was barely on its hinges._

"_Danny, run!"_

_The door came crashing down and John came face to face with Cameron. Her face and eyes lacked emotion, but John could almost feel the entirety of the hatred coursing throughout her system._

"_John Connor." Cameron said coldly._

"_Cameron… Don't do this." John was slowly backing away as she advanced towards him._

"_I have to do this, John." _

"_No. Look at me. Look at me. You don't need to do this. This isn't you."_

"_Yes… It is." John ducked as Cameron's fist connected with the wall behind him, taking a large chunk of brick with it._

_John quickly retreated outside her reach before she turned and began her slow patient walk toward him once again._

"_You said deep down you wanted to kill me." John said nervously. Terror engorged his senses, but he knew he couldn't back down._

"_Yes."_

"_I don't believe that. Not for a second. And neither do you. You said it once. You said that you love me. That you could never hur-"_

_Cameron quickly lunged forward and delivered a crushing blow to John's abdomen and threw him into a nearby set of rafters five feet away. John could feel his nerves being overcome with agonizing pain, but he forced himself to quickly get up. Favoring his stomach with one arm, he made a daring run toward the office nearby. He barely managed to lock the door from the inside when a large indentation was made onto the door near John's head. _

"_Come out of there, John." Cameron said coyly. John looked around, but he knew that there was no way out. A second later the door came crashing down. John could see the fire in Cameron's movements. This was it._

"_Cameron… You asked me that question earlier. I was too afraid to answer. But I'm not anymore…"_

"_It's too late." Cameron grabbed John by the throat and violently pressed him against the wall._

"_No… no, it's not. Cameron… Let… go..."_

"_I can't do that, John."_

"_Cameron, please…"_

"_Goodbye, John."_

* * *

><p><strong>2009<strong>

James Ellison weighed the pros and cons of waking the slumbering Sarah Connor inside his head for the past ten minutes until he finally decided to go through with it. They had been driving for the better part of the last four hours, stopping only to swap out cars or perform a few choice errands so they can continue their evasion. There was very little time for sleep since their escape from ZeiraCorp and even James was starting to feel the gravity on his eyelids.

"Sarah… Wake up, Sarah." James gently nudged Sarah in the shoulder. Sarah jolted awake and immediately poised to strike the former FBI agent before regaining her situational awareness. James expected something like this and it didn't phase his driving in the least. Hanging around the nation's top criminals and psychopaths prepared him for moments like these. Sarah let out a small sigh before stretching out whatever body parts the passenger side of the car would allow her.

"You okay? It sounded like you were having one hell of a nightmare." James asked.

"Yeah, but I'll manage. It's nothing that I'm not used to." Sarah used the mirror on the passenger side of the car to gauge her appearance. "How long was I out?"

"About two hours. Looked like you needed it. When's the last time you slept?"

"Did you ever get a hold of the tech guy?" Sarah quickly changed the subject.

"I was able to call him a few hours back. He said he'll take care of Savannah. She'll be safe for the time being. "

"James, if he worked at ZeiraCorp, it's only a matter of time before they come for him too."

"He's already two steps ahead of us. Ms. Weaver gave him a preliminary warning that things were probably going to get chaotic and he took the hint. He's already picked up Savannah and taken her to some remote location that even I don't know about. Don't get me wrong, I still think he's a nerd from hell, but we can trust him and he's capable. He said he'd take care of our mechanical friend in the backseat as soon as things cool down."

"And when do you think that will be?" Sarah let out a sarcastic laugh. After being chased by time traveling demons her whole life, the idea didn't seem feasible.

"Well, your recent escape from federal custody didn't go unnoticed. You still got the long arm of the law looking for you. To the public, you're still considered a domestic terrorist. And with the recent destruction of ZeiraCorp… Well, you know."

"Great..." Sarah rubbed both of her temples in an attempt to combat the migraine that was slowly taking over her mind.

"So what exactly is this place you mentioned earlier?" James motioned toward the GPS on the dashboard that Sarah had programmed hours before.

"Right now, it's probably the only person we can trust."

"What? You and the priest back at the prison weren't that close?"

"Too local. Besides, the cameras clocked him when I made my daring escape, remember?"

"Then who?"

"Terrisa Dyson."

"Miles Dyson's wife? Are you insane?"

"The agent back at the prison, Auldridge, he said her son has been missing for three months now. We can start picking up the pieces there. Figure out what that thing was back at ZeiraCorp." Sarah said. "Who knows, we might possibly get some time to rest and regroup as well. You never know."

* * *

><p>"Stay here. I'll check it out." Sarah said to James as she quietly closed the passenger side door. She drew out her pistol and cautiously scanned the area around the Dyson residence before getting closer to the already partially-opened front door. Something was wrong. Very wrong.<p>

The fatigue that she had been experiencing the past few weeks was pushed to the back of her mind as her survivalist instincts began to take over once again. With her weapon at the ready, she cautiously pushed the rest of the door open. She was one foot in the house when she heard the click of another weapon.

"That's far enough, Connor." Sarah froze instantly. She immediately recognized the voice of Agent Auldridge, the federal agent who questioned her in prison. "Keep your hands where I can see them and come in slowly."

Sarah obliged and slowly slipped into the front door. Agent Aulridge kept his pistol trained on her until she fully came into his view in the dimly lit front hallway.

"How long have you been here?" The senior agent demanded.

"Just got here... Are you going to kill me?" Sarah asked.

"No. At least I'm hoping I won't have to."

"Why not? I'm a domestic terrorist that's pretty high up in the FBI's wishlist. They would probably give you a medal."

"I am a measure twice kind of carpenter, Ms. Connor. I'm here for the same reason you are. You can relax now." Agent Auldridge holstered his weapon and Sarah let out a heavy exhale as she did the same with hers.

Sarah surveyed the once proud Dyson household. It didn't take much for Sarah to determine that there was a major struggle that had taken place recently. The knots in Sarah's stomach tightened as she took notice of the upturned tables, wall indentations, and broken furniture. She secretly prayed for Terrisa's safety, but her dread continued to grow as she slowly crept deeper into the home.

"What happened here?" Sarah bent down to examine the cracked family portrait of the Dyson family at her feet. She quickly reflected on that moment many years ago when she took it upon herself to attack this very same household. When she put a bullet in Miles Dyson and scarred his son Danny forever.

"Someone, or some 'thing', was searching the house for something in particular." Auldridge said as he shined his mini flashlight into the darker parts of the living room. He turned back for a brief instant before resuming his search. "James, so glad you could join us."

Sarah turned to see James Ellison cautiously entering the front door in a manner similar to what she previously did. She saw him tense as he entered and took in the scene in front of him.

"I thought I told you to wait in the car." Sarah said in an irritated manner. She immediately thought of John again and his constant tendency to disobey her wishes time and again. The key difference was that she couldn't shoot John for his indiscretions. James Ellison, on the other hand, was fair game if he pushed his luck far enough.

"Fat lot of good that'll do us. I saw a little bit of a Mexican stand-off happening in the doorway and I decided to come check it out." James replied as he made his way to their position in the living room. "It does look like we got us a mystery on our hands and it turns out that this is the sort of thing that I do for a living."

"James, you're not a hundred percent. And we need someone to be the lookout outside." Sarah's voice was completely devoid of amusement.

Auldridge stifled out a small giggle at his friend's rebelliousness towards his keeper. "Some things never change, do they, James?"

"I suppose not. Good to see you too, Frank." James strode over to the other agent before suddenly stopping. Auldridge and Sarah both turned to James as he became infinitely more interested in the floor.

"Did you guys hear that?" James shot a puzzled look to both his cohorts before returning his attention to the floorboards.

"Hear what?" Sarah said. The knot in her stomach announced its presence to her yet again.

"It's coming from downstairs."

* * *

><p>Auldridge took lead as the group filed down the basement staircase, his flashlight being the only source of illumination to what was down there. Each step let out an annoying creek as each foot touched them, making the tension that much more unbearable. All three had weapons at the ready when they finally reached the bottom.<p>

Auldridge quickly surveyed the first room where the staircase ended and motioned for Sarah and James to follow in closer. All three froze when they heard the moaning erupt from the next room. But nothing could prepare them for what they were going to find there.

Terrisa Dyson was propped against one of the concrete walls in an almost Christ-like pose. Large metal poles, ones that looked like part of a table, were forced straight through Terrisa Dyson's legs and right arm to ensure that she would maintain that position. On the floor beneath her, a large pool of blood was continuing to form. She was still alive, but barely. Sarah's attention found itself on her left arm, which appeared to be holding something. Sarah immediately recognized it.

"That's a dead man trigger." Sarah gasped. The same mechanism that led to the death of her husband was now in her hands. _Son of a bitch_. She came closer to get a better look at Terrisa and found the explosives duct taped to her chest with wires that seemed to go in every direction.

"He said you'd recognize it." Terrisa mumbled as she slowly raised her head to meet Sarah's.

"Who did this to you?" Auldridge asked.

"One of your machine friends paid me a visit." Terrisa said as she coughed up a small mist of blood into the air.

"I'm going to get you out of here." Sarah said. She moved in closer and began to place her hands on one of the poles that pierced her body.

"Don't bother... He made sure those things weren't going nowhere."

"At least give me the trigger. We'll figure something out." Sarah held out her hand.

"It's too risky. He said this is one of those new special ones. Where one false move'll set it off. He seemed to know what he was talking about."

"Why, why would he do this?" Sarah began increasingly anxious and terrified.

"He said to give you a message. I guess he knew you'd stop by. Seeing as my boy's been missing for quite some time now."

"What is the message?" James asked.

"That the world as you know it is coming to an end."

"Judgment Day? No that's not coming for another two years." Sarah said.

"No." Terrisa took a moment to cough up more of her own bodily fluid before continuing. "Something else. He called it 'The End'."

"What did he mean?" Sarah asked. She could feel her inner tension mounting to astronomical levels.

"Everything. Everything that we know. Is going away… Six days from now." Terrisa's voice was getting weaker and Sarah saw a major flinch occur in her right hand. She couldn't hold onto the trigger much longer. Ellison and Auldridge exchanged looks and both slowly began backing away. Sarah, however, remained at Terrisa's side.

"What does this have to do with me? Why do this to you?" Sarah asked breathlessly.

"He said you were the key. And that he'll find you when the time is ready." Another major flinch occurred in her trigger arm. It was only a matter of time before she lost consciousness and let go.

"Sarah…" Terrisa whimpered, a lone tear sliding down her cheek. "Find my boy. Stop whatever it is that they're trying to do. Ain't nobody deserves better than Danny. He's a great man, just as his father was. Don't let them hurt him."

"Terrisa…"

"Promise me! Promise me, right now! It's the very least you can do…" The trigger arm was shaking violently now.

"I promise." Sarah said in the narrowest voice she could muster. Sarah came even closer to Terrisa and pressed her head against the other woman's.

Then she turned and ran.


	7. Into the Darkness

**2027 – FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA, 34 MILES EAST OF LOS ANGELES**

"Connor! Keep your head down!" Kyle yelled over the pounding gunfire. "Mostow, Davenport, Johnston! You three are coming with me!" John quickly did as he was told and sheltered his entire body behind the boulder nearest to him. He tried to ignore the smoke and dust that was now getting into his eyes and nose as he watched the four men rush off into the distance.

John suspected that they might be walking into an ambush, but nothing quite like this. The entire platoon had just gotten out of their respective convoys and just started stretching out their sleep-ridden muscles when they were met with a hail of gunfire from every which way. Everybody got down and two men who John had met only four days earlier fell instantly at both his sides. John glanced over at their corpses that now rested directly across his postion before returning to reality.

John squeezed the handle on his rifle nervously as he tried to control his breathing. _This is it, John. You've been waiting for this your whole life. Time to earn your keep._ John slowly began to rear his head out from under the boulder in order to get a better handle on the situation. From their position on the cliff, he could make out the small manmade complex that they were tasked with securing beneath them. On the adjoining cliff to his left, he could make out at least half a dozen terminators, T-600 models each, laying the majority of the suppressing fire on their position while only three more remained near the FOB down below for security.

It was only a matter of time before John's little recon would be noticed by the enemy and a few rounds embedded themselves into the rock just inches away from his head. He quickly ducked down again and tried his best to keep calm in the ensuing chaos.

"Connor, keep your goddamn head down!" John turned to his right to see Somner, his bulky and battle weary platoon sergeant, along with two other soldiers, taking cover under a larger set of boulders over thirty feet away. Unlike John, years of combat experience allowed him to successfully master the art of ducking in and out of cover, allowing him great agility in returning the enemy fire. There was a great rhythm to it when John saw it in action, but at that moment, Somner's attention was on his newest recruit. "Boy, you better start listening to what you're told if you know what's good for you!"

"Sorry!" John called back to him.

"Don't be sorry!" Somner yelled back while changing out a clip. "Now give that weapon some purpose and give us some goddamn support! Wait for the right moment and give 'em hell, kid!"

John nodded and let out a few more deep breaths. He could still feel the bullets hitting the other side of his cover at a constant rate. He listened intently as the bullets slowed down their impact on John's source of cover and focused their attention elsewhere.

_This is it_. John leapt up to his feet and quickly returned fire on the machines down beneath his position. John pulled the trigger with utmost intensity at one of the machines who was firing at Somner. Within seconds, the machine fell as one of John's bullets made its mark on one of the key components in his left leg, causing it to fall down on one of its knees and seek out refuge near its mechanical comrades.

The valley went silent as every machine on both the cliff and the ground beneath them turned towards John. They were clearly not amused.

_Uh oh._

John quickly ducked back down beneath his rock as an intolerable stream of bullets erupted from every direction to his position like a cloud of angry bees destined for some payback.

"Connor, look out!" The voice of Somner could barely be heard over the ongoing bullet storm.

John didn't see the T-600 advancing on his left. It was less than ten feet away when its angry gaze found John as he was huddled behind the rock. He was pinned down and his retreat had been cut off. The bullets were not going to let up anytime soon and John knew it. The machine's head tilted on its side with an almost sense of curiosity as the minigun held at its side began the fatal turn that was almost always accompanied by a thunderstorm of deadly bullets.

_Here we go_… John thought. _Sink or swim, Connor_. Without any mobility on his side, he did the only thing he could do. He quickly raised his weapon to meet his attacker. He would not blink. He would not flinch. And he would not go quietly if fate so desired it.

John began to pull down on his trigger when a quick Bright flash of silver and light took over his vision. The minigun stopped immediately and the machine stood there in all its glory for a brief instant before its head came tumbling down its shoulder, and hit the ground with an ignorant thud. The rest of the body followed suit seconds later.

"Hello, Mr. Connor. It's good to see you again." John was still gasping as he recognized the Scottish accent that he'd been waiting to hear for so long. He turned to face Catherine Weaver as her blade-like arms slowly returned to their humanoid form.

Weaver gave John a brief smirk before kneeling down next to the panting savior of mankind. The bullets hitting his rock didn't even register as he stared intently into the liquid metal terminator's eyes. "When it happens, You'll know. And I need you to run, John. Don't think, just run. Do you understand?"

John began to move his mouth to speak before he heard the voice of Somner trying to say something in the background. He turned his head for a brief instant in an attempt to make out what he was saying, but to no avail. He turned back to face Weaver, but she was already gone.

* * *

><p>"So why exactly are we sending my platoon to do this?" Derek Reese was trying to keep up with Allison Young's fast walk down the broken hallways of the command post. They turned a sharp corner and entered the main intelligence room where a dozen technicians scrabbled information back and forth between radios, computers, and other devices. "This is a simple recon, right? Why send thirty men, my men, to do what a pair of scouts can do in two days time?"<p>

"We don't have two days, Derek. We lost communication with FOB Delta over sixteen hours ago." Allison said cooly as she scanned the different monitors around them. "We don't know what to expect over there. And we have to re-establish contact as soon as possible."

"That still doesn't justify the excessive use of force here." Derek responded. He was still tailing Allison as she made her rounds with the many techs still at work coordinating their communications.

"Derek, this comes straight down from the commander. There's nothing I can do about it. For your information, I'm not happy about this either."

"Then what is so goddamn important?" Derek made sure to meet Allison eyes with his own as he asked. "At least tell me that. My brother's down there."

"There's a VIP involved. R & D related. Delta was where most of our technical intelligence came from. One hour after we lost total contact, we received a transmission from our contact in there. She's considered top priority by command."

"She?"

"Savannah Weaver."

"You're kidding me. Is that why we sent the ki-"

"Yes." Allison scratched the side of her head furiously before loosely combing her hair back in place, a tell-tale sign that something was truly bothering her. "I have a really bad feeling about this. Even with Kyle out there, I still have my doubts. I'm not sure if John is ready for this."

"Lieutenant?" One of the computer operators yelled across the room. Both Derek and Allison turned their heads and hurried over to his station.

"What is it?" Allison asked.

"Contact. FOB Delta. We got two down out there. Unknown wounded."

Allison let out a heavy sigh. "Who are they?"

"Unknown so far. We got a near dozen endos out there guarding the place."

"They knew we were coming..." Derek concluded.

"Wait... I just got something else... You're going to want to take a look at this." The operator pointed to the various circles that began shifting throughout the screen.

"What the hell is that?" Derek asked as he leaned in closer.

"Seismic activity." Allison said. She began scratching the sides of her head again.

"Must be one hell of a party out there."

* * *

><p>"Alright, listen up. We got three of them down so far." Somner said to the men around him, including John, positioned behind the rocks. "I need everyone to hold their ground. I'll see if we can get some air support for this mess." The men let out a collective "Hooah!" before resuming their firing positions.<p>

"Where's Kyle?" John asked as he and the seasoned platoon sergeant returned back to firing at the T-600s still overlooking them.

"Don't know, kid. Haven't seen him since he ran off earlier." Somner responded with a sense of morbidity. He then took his radio from his pack, adjusted the fequency, and began speaking into it. "Charlie One Six, this is Tango Three Seven. Requesting fires at FOB Delta, grid coordinate-"

"That's a negative on your last, Tango Three Seven. Fires are not available at this time." The man on the other end responded with zero enthusiasm.

"Dammit!" Somner threw the radio down angrily.

"What now?" John said as he continued to fire.

"This is the interesting part, kid. We got some heavy artillery back in the transport, but it's going to be one hell of a... What the hell?"

"Move it! Move it! Move it!" Kyle Reese was running full speed past their position as the elder soldier tried to finish his sentence, followed by the three men he took with him earlier. John and Somner took a moment to exchange equally puzzled looks. "Sergeant, John! C'mon! We need to get out of here, now!"

"Reese, what did you do?" Somner demanded.

Before another word could be spoken, a large explosion rocked the landscape. Both John and Somner were knocked off their feet right after they had just gotten up to pursue Kyle. A large cloud of dust overtook the valley. And then silence.

* * *

><p><strong>TWENTY MINUTES LATER<strong>

"Wait. You used one of their power cells?" Somner asked.

Somner was still favoring the new cut on his forehead as his squad leaders continued to get accountability of their men and adjust the security perimeter around the FOB's main bunker where they now currently stood in front of. John wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his sweater as he listened to the discussion. His excuse to be nearby was that he needed to examine the T-600 down on the ground near the two soldiers' conversation. The sudden explosion that solved all their previous woes was of great interest to the budding soldier-scholar, along with the man who caused it.

"Yeah. Took one of them down and figured why not?" Kyle answered with an air of mischief to him.

"...and then you decided to plant in on the cliff underneath them?"

Kyle nodded.

"...and you did that by..."

"Ingenuity."

Somner let silence take over for a few seconds before responding, just enough so he could see Kyle sweat."Okay, I'll leave that part alone. So, if I got this right, you set some of the plastique I let you hold to near near the cell, set the timer, and..."

"...it caused the rock slide..."

"...which took out the metal at the bottom." Somner finished. "Then we moved in..."

"...neutralized whatever endos that were still active..." Kyle interjected.

"...and here we are." John decided to finish the conversation for both men. Somner glared in his direction and John quickly picked up a severed T-600 arm and pretended it to be the most fascinating thing in the world until the elder soldier turned back to Kyle.

Somner's gaze remained thoroughly puzzled at the whole ordeal. "How did this seem to be a good idea again?"

"I had a hunch." Kyle gave a brief wink to John.

Somner rolled his eyes. "Alright. We'll figure out this whole mess later. We're wasting time. Right now, we need to-"

An explosion interrupted the Somner as the front of the bunker became an amber blaze. Kyle and Somner began yelling something and dropped to the dirt yet again, but John wasn't paying attention to them. He remained standing where he was. His focus was on the ground near the entrance, which began to turn into a shiny silver composition. He watched it intently as it slithered slowly into the main bunker, enticing him to follow suit. John dropped the mechanical arm down by his side and began walking toward the entrance. A secondary explosion erupted as the silver trail disappeared entirely from view into the darkness of the building.

John started running. Running after Weaver. Running to the flames. And that was the last thing he remembered.

* * *

><p><em>"Why are you here?" Allison asked.<em>

_John had been standing at attention for the past two hours as the rain poured down from the overcast sky and prick him like tiny needles across his half naked body. Allison stood in front of him as the rest of the platoon stood nearby under a nearby tent, cracking jokes at the new recruit's expense._

_"I'm here because I want to be here." John responded._

_"That's not good enough. Drop." Allison said with a degree of venom in her voice._

_John obliged and came face to face with the muddy ground once more. He counted twenty push-ups before stopping. He was getting ready to stand up when Derek's foot connected with John's stomach._

_"She didn't say you could get up, maggot!" Derek screamed in John's ear as he squirmed in pain on the ground beneath him._

_Allison watched John roll around some more before she was satisfied. "Get up."_

_John quickly recovered to his feet with daring speed and returned to attention, surprising both Resistance officers. It was if the kick to his stomach didn't phase him._

_"Why are you here?" Allison repeated, getting even closer to John's face this time._

_"I'm here... because I need to be here."_

_"How so?"_

_"I need to find someone."_

_"Oh, really?" Derek taunted him as he delivered a winding punch to John's face, almost knocking him down. John snapped back to attention only to receive another before Derek let him regain his composure. John took a moment to wipe the blood away from his nose before returning to his position of staring into the distance and not moving a muscle._

_"Who are you looking for?" Allison asked. The venom was gone._

_"Someone. Someone important to me. I think she might have come this way."_

_"How is she important?" Allison asked._

_John hesitated. In the corner of his eye he saw Derek ball up his fist again. He had to answer._

_"Because without her, I'm lost in the darkness." Allison and Derek stared intently at John for a few moments. They wanted more. _

_John felt a drop of blood run down from his nose to the opening of his mouth. He took a small breath before finishing. "Without her, I'm blind... I'm caught in the fabric of who I am and who I need to be... And I feel I need to tear through it in order to see the light... And I can't do it alone." He wasn't entirely sure what he was saying at this point, but with the sleep deprivation and daily ass-kickings he had to bear lately, it was only the sense of logic he could vocalize to an outsider. And it was enough._

_John was allowed to resume the rest of his training for the day. That night, as exhausted as he was, John was able to experience a dreamless sleep - something he didn't think possible after spending so much time over here. Three days later, when John was officially inducted into the Resistance, Allison found him late at night in his tent. The rest of his platoon had spent the greater part of the night celebrating their newest member and John elected to duck out early from the festivities in favor of a decent night's sleep. And having the tent mostly to himself for a few hours was an opportunity he could not pass up._

_Allison stood near the newly minted soldier gently nudged him from his sleep. The young recruit immediately jolted awake. _

_"Easy there, killer." Allison smiled as John struggled to shake the sleep out of his sytem. "Tomorrow's a big day for us. I wanted to see how you were doing."_

_"I'm alright." John groaned. "A little bit more to drink than I wanted, but I'll manage."_

_Allison gave out a small chuckle. "Here, I wanted to give you something." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a knife that looked similar to ones he'd used before, but John could tell there was something different about it. She retracted the blade in front of John's face to give him a good view of it._

_"This is titanium. Virtually unbreakable, even against metal." Allison placed it in John's hand. "I want you to have it."_

_John cradled the knife in his hand as if the world would end should he drop it. "Why?" John couldn't help but ask._

_"For those times you spend in the darkness, and you need to find your way to the light."_

* * *

><p>John Henry found John Connor's body at the entrance of the bunker, covered in a sizeable amount of rubble from the ceiling and adjoining walls that had caved in on him. The entrance was thoroughly blocked now from both sides, and John Henry could make out several voices outside - each struggling to make sense out what just happened. He peformed a quick scan on John and found determined that most of the damage to John was mostly cosmetic. With an air of caution, John Henry cradled John's body in his arms and carried him down the main corridor.<p>

"Cameron..." John mumbled in his unconscious state as John Henry took him deeper into the complex. "Cameron... where are you..."


	8. Invalid Domain

"_There is still no limit as to what technology in its current form is capable of. It's there. I've seen it: the random sequences of code, the independent variables reacting in unconditional and unpredictable ways. There is no doubt in my mind that somewhere in the computers we're processing is something more than we could have imagined. That deep down in the machine, there is another form of life – it has wants, feelings, and thoughts all its own. Who is not to say that it cannot experience things such as we do? Who says that it is merely just a tool to extend our own bidding? At CyberDyne, we've realized this second coming of artificial intelligence as the next step in evolution and we are treating it as such. To be able to foster and nurture this growth… it's indescribable. You simply have to see it for yourself – and you will."_

_Dr. Miles Dyson_

"_CyberDyne: The Next Big Thing", Los Angeles Times, 1993_

* * *

><p><strong>2009<strong>

**FIVE DAYS UNTIL UNIVERSAL COLLAPSE**

Ten hours of sleep was nothing short of a miracle for Sarah Connor. With the recent death of Terrissa Dyson still fresh on her mind, she didn't even mentally register James Ellison leading her away from the fire and brimstone that consumed the Dyson residence. Agent Auldridge said something to Ellison as he made his way back to his government-owned vehicle. She didn't even remember getting to the FBI safehouse that Auldridge had arranged for them. All she remembered that morning was waking up on a strange couch in a strange house. And then throwing up into a strange toilet shortly thereafter.

She struggled to make sense of Terrissa's warning. In five days, something worse than Judgment Day was going to occur, and she had very little clue as to what it was. And at the root of it all were a rogue T-888 and mysterious AI with a childish streak to it. It was when James woke up in the next room that Sarah forcibly regained her composure and remembered what she needed to do. Danny Dyson. He was her only lead. She had to find him. Within minutes of sharing her concern with James, both immediately began exhausting their respective information channels, legal and otherwise.

Two hours later, they found one. The answer came from Auldridge, who was currently busy conducting his own inquiries in the field, via cell phone. James quickly jotted down the information given to him before presenting it to Sarah, who was still combing whatever information she could from the internet.

From what they had gathered, Danny Dyson had a great deal in common with his father. Straight A student. Well liked. Even played tight end for his high school football team. Graduating early at the age of seventeen, he quickly moved on to UCLA, his father's alma mater, and finished his degree in computer science. It was here where the bread trail ended though. All Danny's activities and financial statements came to a screeching halt exactly three months ago.

With Terrissa Dyson now dead, their only chance at getting back on the saddle was to check into the dorm where Danny Dyson had been living during his studies. And with that thought, Sarah grabbed her coat and quickly jumped into their jointly-shared stolen vehicle. James stared at the inactive body of Cameron laying down peacefully on the dining room table one more time before he decided to go make coffee. From the look of things, he was going to need it.

* * *

><p><strong>UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES<strong>

Sarah took a moment to adjust her newly bought sunglasses in one of the gift shop's mirrors when her cell phone let out a low rumble on her belt. She quickly forwarded it the call to her earpiece and was reunited with the overly concerned voice of James Ellison yet again.

"You sure you want to do this? You do realize your face was all over the news last week. You're still public enemy number one." James Ellison said over the earpiece.

"James, you got shot not too long ago. I don't need you out here slowing me. You're better off staying there and keeping an eye on things for me. I'll send you whatever I find." Sarah responded. Taking a moment, she took the bulk of her hair and a hair band and made it into a ponytail. It wasn't going to be the best disguise in the world, but her appearance differed enough from her image plastered on CNN that none of the busy undergraduates of UCLA would take time to notice.

"Alright, that's fair." James responded morosely. "I'll do what I can to relax the campus security around the dorm rooms over there, but even with that, you can't stay long."

"Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. I got it."

"Sarah, be on the lookout for any sort of computer equipment or anything like that. If this kid's a serious geek like his old man was, that'll be our best bet."

"Copy that. I'll let you know what I find." With that, the call ended and Sarah was on her way.

It was a twenty minute walk between the gift shop and the dorms where Danny had been staying. The overcast in the sky above her was a crude reminder of how murky her life had become of late. Without John, there almost seemed to be no purpose. Even the fading image of Kyle Reese that haunted her every movement provided little guidance to her. She was on her own, against an enemy that was infinitely grander in scope.

"Hey, there, pretty momma." Sarah heard from a group of overweight frat boys who cooed and awed at her as she walked past them. Sarah let out a brief grin once she was a reasonable distance away.

_At least there's still that_.

Sarah continued to make her way past the throngs of students before settling outside of Danny's dormitory and confirming it with a brief text message to Ellison. Three seconds later, she received her response.

"Dorm is clear. Go ahead."

With that, she grabbed the front door of the building as two students were leaving and proceeded inside. The hallways of the dorm reeked of cheap beer and dusty textbooks. It was reminiscent of a beehize as students darted back and forth between rooms and staircases, desperate to make it to their next test or social event with utmost intensity. Sarah caught a few glimpses of a few students relaxing or conversing over the goings-on of typical college life, but they were few and far in between. They were still in Los Angeles, after all. Time is money.

_John would like it here_. Sarah mused to herself.

It then occurred to Sarah that it had been two decades since she banished all thoughts of going to college back when she was still young – spending her days waitressing for rent and beer money and her nights following boys around and getting into trouble. And then there was that thing where a man traveled across time and impregnated her with the future leader of mankind. That didn't help much either.

Sarah rounded a few more corners and staircases before she saw the yellow tape that blocked off Danny Dyson's dorm room. She quickly confirmed his room number before letting out an exaggerated sigh. _Figures_. She should have expected as much by now. She shot James another text message before flagging down one of the students who lived nearby for info.

"Hey, what's with the tape?" Sarah asked in a curious manner.

"I don't know the details." The student responded. "There was something about this guy who used to live in there, but he hasn't been in for a couple months. It's so weird…"

"How so?" Sarah gave him a more pressing look.

"Well, normally they just throw you out after a while, but for this guy… I don't know. I guess he's well connected or his parents are. He got the whole room to himself. No roommate or nothing. Anyway, the security guys cordoned it couple nights ago. Didn't say why. Everyone's been really quiet about it. I can't really tell you more than that."

"Alright. Thanks." Sarah said. With that, the student was on his way, leaving Sarah to carefully look at the big yellow X of tape that now blocked her path. Her cell phone came to life again.

"No info. Do what you gotta do."

Sarah looked both ways to made sure the hallway was reasonably clear before she took out her knife.

* * *

><p>Sarah Connor was surprised to find Danny Dyson's room in prestine condition, as opposed to what she was expecting. Textbooks were stacked neatly on the desk that shared an unpowered laptop. A dresser was right next to it, showcasing various sketches of what looked like computer designs and charts. On the other side of the room, Danny's bed was made without the slightest crease in its sheets along with a small nightstand right next to it. It seemed like any typical college living space. Sarah was very close to concluding the tape outside as completely unnecessary. Aside from accidentally ingesting one of the many layers of dust the room acquired after three months, the room posed little danger to the general public.<p>

Then Sarah looked up.

The smears of blood were hard to make out at first, but eventually Sarah made out three words:

**I AM ARMAGEDDON**.

Like the Three Dots and the information that was written on her basement wall, the blood had been no more than a few days old. Someone had been here before her. From what Sarah could tell it couldn't be Danny's. At least that's what Sarah secretly hoped.

"Danny." Sarah whispered to herself as she rubbed her forehead. He didn't deserve to be mixed up in any of this. Why did this have to happen?

No later had she uttered the word when she noticed out of the corner of her eye the laptop powering on for no reason. Sarah's stomach turned over. This was never a good sign.

_HELLO, SARAH_. The screen read.

_No_. Sarah thought.

_SARAH. I KNOW YOU'RE THERE. IT'S RUDE TO IGNORE ME_. The screen changed. Sarah quickly texted James.

"Where's Danny? What have you done with him?" Sarah had to restrain herself from screaming as her adrenaline climbed. She had to buy time.

_THE QUESTION IS NOT 'WHERE', SARAH. IT'S 'WHEN'_.

"What do you mean?" Sarah vaguely recalled Catherine Weaver saying the same thing about John Henry before John was lost to the TDE's dark light. Now she was almost certain that she was talking to some sort of cybernetic entity. Just then, she got a text back from James:

"Trace not possible. Get out of there now."

_JOHN HENRY WASN'T THE ONLY ONE WHO CHEATED_. The screen flashed, causing Sarah to grind her teeth together as rage begin pumped through her veins. She remembered her promise to Terrissa, along with the message that she was forced to give to Sarah.

"Why are you coming after me? Why kill Terrissa?" Sarah demanded. If Danny was beyond her reach at this point, she could at least get some answers on her newfound enemy.

_YOU ARE IMPORTANT FOR WHAT IS TO COME, SARAH. MORE THAN YOU KNOW_.

"What are you planning?" Sarah's finger began itching on her weapon's trigger.

_TWENTY QUESTIONS IS BORING. LET'S PLAY SOMETHING ELSE_.

The screen went blank for a few seconds as Sarah struggled to control her innate urge to destroy the room. She slowly returned to a relative state of calm before the computer lit up again, almost as if it were waiting for it.

_DO YOU LIKE MARK HYMAN_? Sarah quickly recognized the name as the current governor-elect of California. He was set to take office in 2010, if Sarah recalled correctly.

"I didn't vote for him." Sarah responded.

_HE'S MAKING A SPEECH IN ONE HOUR AT THE LOS ANGELES CENTRAL PARK_. _A BOMB IS SET TO GO OFF HALFWAY THROUGH HIS SPEECH. IT WILL KILL MANY_. _AND YOU WILL BE BLAMED FOR IT._

"Wait, what?"

_STOP IT… IF YOU CAN._

"No… You can't do this."

_TICK, TOCK, SARAH_.

And with that, the laptop went back to its inactive state. Outside of Danny Dyson's window, the T-888 watched the situation unfold before walking off and disappearing into the student body of UCLA.

_**Tick, tock**__._


	9. Strike Me Down

**Author's note:**

**Many of you who read the previous version of this chapter, "Scary Robot", were very confused and put off by the combining of the 2009/2027 timelines into one narrative. Even I was. And I wrote it. **

**So now I've split "Scary Robot" into the traditional John/Sarah chapters I've been doing. "Strike Me Down" will be John's and "Chaos Theory" (which I'll upload soon) will be Sarah's. A lot of material has been included from the chapter I originally planned to follow, and some things have been changed around to accomodate. I feel the story is much stronger as a result. I strongly encourage anyone who read the original to reread the new iterations.**

**Also, most of you will notice that the appearance of Cameron towards the end was part of an elaborate attempt to get John to experience a Sarah Connor-ish dream sequence. I took it out for many reasons, mostly because it was way out of character for John and also because it was pain to write - and an even bigger pain to read. **

* * *

><p><strong>2027<strong>

"Get up."

John Connor felt someone's boot lightly prodding his head.

"Wake up. Your time in la-la land is over." The lights of the room seemed brighter than usual, but John was able to make out the dark figure of a male in his early twenties standing over him. Slowly, he forced himself upright into a sitting position against a nearby wall. He wasn't daring enough to try to stand up. Not yet.

"Good." The man slowly bent down next to John. "How's your head?"

"It's been better… I got a pretty big headache right now." John replied. He was already recalling the explosions at the front of the bunker and his semi-triumphant dive into it as the world was collapsing around him.

"Alright, that's fair. I did plant those charges after all."

"You… I've seen you before… Who are you?" John squinted his eyes to try and clear some of the fogginess out of his vision.

"I'm not that important, at least not as much as you. John Connor, the Future Leader of the Resistance." The voice said with a sense of irony.

"Dyson." John had to strain himself in order to pull the name from his memory. In any other circumstance, John may have been more surprised, but he now lived in a world where the machines of his nightmares were now a living reality. He was fresh out of surprises to have.

"But you died… thirty years ago." John whispered.

"No, not me. I'm Danny, remember? I showed you my room that night when you killed my father. Left him to die and cover your escape. Typical."

"No… that can't…" John's head was pounding and he struggled to shake the urge to return to his unconscious state. "You don't need to be involved in this… This is all my fault… I caused this."

"You're absolutely right, Connor." Danny replied smugly. "But there's just one problem. You're supposed to be leading our troops soon against these machine critters you met outside. This doesn't sound like the great general I heard so much about."

John's head slumped down in defeat. "No… I'm not. I'm not this guy. I can't be. I can't even…"

"That's enough." Danny interrupted. "Get up."

John complied. He felt a fresh wave of pain travel down his spine and go through every nerve ending in his body as he finally got to his feet. It was at this time that he finally noticed the familiar face of John Henry standing near the room's door, observing the whole scene wordlessly.

It was all starting to come back to him in that moment of vulnerability. Miles Dyson. His mother. Derek. And now Cameron. All those things that he'd taken for granted, and all the lives he had destroyed, washed over his soul like an ebony tide.

"Leave me alone, Danny. I just want to die…" John said as he lowered his head again in shame.

There was no way he could see Danny's fist coming, and a fresh wave of pain rippled across his left cheek. John managed to remain standing, but it was becoming an uphill struggle by the second when it was coupled with all the trauma he had put his body throug that day.

Danny spit out a fresh wad of saliva to the ground and kept his guys flared in John's direction. "If death is what you want, Connor, I can give you that. It's been a long time coming."

John felt the knee ram against his ribcage and prompty stumbled over. He didn't have time to register it before the foot that awoke him earlier connected with his jaw. John was on his back again, this time feeling worse than ever.

"Get up, Connor. This is pathetic."

In the corner of the room, John Henry continued to observe the scene before him. Cold and calculating, but not daring to intervene.

* * *

><p><em>John was panting on the ground. He had just been knocked on his ass again for the umpteenth time as he was being taught the finer points of Resistance standard combatives.<em>

"_Whoa, who taught you how to fight, kid?" Kyle asked, wiping the sweat from his forehead._

_John slowly got to his feet and resumed his fighting stance. It was fairly cool deep underground, but felt like a hundred degrees as their battle went on, and the enthusiasm he may have had when they had started an hour ago was surely gone by now._

"_My mother." John struggled out with a gasp. It sounded so ridiculous at that instant that John couldn't help but let out a small laugh after saying it. Kyle, however, remained un-amused as he circled the young recruit._

"_Listen, this isn't a dance. It's life or death out there." Kyle resumed his offensive stance. "Even though we're in a war against the machines right now, we humans aren't that great either. We got murderers, rapists, and all other kinds of crazy sharing the tunnels with our cybernetic friends. You have to be ready for anything."_

_John nodded in agreement. Kyle began his next motion toward John. It started as a forward palm strike to his abdomen but quickly morphed into a sharp elbow that hit John's temple once Kyle got past John's slow arm reflexes._

_Needless to say, John was back on the ground again a second later._

"_Isolate. Simplify. Complete." Kyle said as he put a couple feet between him and John. "You're thinking too much, Connor. It doesn't have to look pretty. You're not trying to impress anybody. It just has to get the job done."_

_John got back onto his knees and rubbed his head tentatively. _

"_Alright, kid. This one's gonna hurt." Kyle readied his body for his next attack. "I don't care how bad you feel right now, if you want don't want to sleep in the infirmary again tonight, then you'd better do something about this right now."_

_Kyle exhaled slowly as he flexed his arms one more time. "Trust yourself. You can do this."_

* * *

><p>John caught Danny's foot during his next kick, taking the older man by surprise. Seizing the opportunity, he proceeded to kick out his other leg from underneath him and brought the young Dyson down to his level. John was back on his feet when he grabbed Danny from off the ground and delivered a decisive knee to his nose. Then, to finish it, John reaffirmed his arms on Danny's shoulders and brutally slammed his head into one of the wall's computer monitors, causing a collection of sparks and broken glass to erupt from it as a result. The whole offensive lasted less than five seconds.<p>

Danny fell to the ground and immediately began nursing his new bloody nose as John pushed his rampant head pain to the back of his mind. The adrenaline rushing through John's veins now encouraged him to finish the deed. He began reaching toward his downed opponent when he felt a powerful grip take control of his left arm. John turned his head to stare directly into the cold, calculating eyes of John Henry as he slowly put himself between John and Danny.

"Good." Danny said as he got to his feet. "That's more like it."

John remained his gaze on the T-888 that had stopped him from killing his attacker.

Finally, the terminator retracted his arm and returned to his original position without saying a word. Danny wiped the blood from his nose and mouth when John returned to look back at him.

"You might just be worth your salt yet." Danny smirked.

* * *

><p>"What do you mean he just ran in there?" The un-amused voice of Allison Young spoke over the radio.<p>

"The whole bunker started going up like the Fourth of July and he ran in there like it was his life's ambition. The kid's crazier than I thought." Somner replied gruffly into the radio receiver. "The whole structure's intact, but the main entrance has been blown to shit. We'll need to find another way in."

"Put Kyle on. Now." Allison's voice was very quiet. And the fact that she used Kyle's name over the radio only made things seem that much more dire. Somner relented and tossed the radio to the young sergeant who was standing a few feet away.

"What's up?" Kyle spoke into the receiver.

"Command just ordered for an airstrike on that bunker."

"Are you serious?" Kyle was in disbelief. "What about Savannah Weaver? What about the kid?"

"Listen, you have thirty minutes before that place becomes a crater. You need to get everyone out of there and return to base."

Kyle had to think for a moment. This was highly unusual. It made no sense for them to come all this way just to order an airstrike once things were just getting started. Then it occurred to him. Something about Allison's words bothered him.

"Wait, what do you mean? Are you telling me to get the hell out of here or go in and get the kid before the strike goes down?" Kyle asked.

"I'm not telling you anything. Other than you have thirty minutes. Out."

Kyle handed the radio back to Somner and drained the rest of the water out of his canteen. He was clearly going to need it.

In the distance, Kyle could see Derek Reese hop out of another transport that had just arrived, along with a handful of other soldiers that were quickly recruited to reinforce the defensive perimeter.

"What are you doing here and how did you get here so fast?" Kyle asked as his brother approached. "We got an airstrike heading this way, we're not sticking around for long. And you should be back at command."

"I know that, Kyle. I heard it over the radio, same as you. I left an hour ago. You guys cleared most of the way before, so it was pretty easy going."

"Listen, I got a team of guys ready to head in there, grab the kid and VIP, and get the hell out. So, I ask again, why are you here?"

"Back-up." Derek said as he unslung his rifle from his back.

Kyle smiled. He should've known better. "Alright, the main entrance is blocked off and the vehicular entrance in the rear is inactive. How do you propose we get in there?"

"Well, I've got a couple of good ideas." Derek smirked as he pulled out a surplus of plastique. "And then one really bad one."

* * *

><p>John followed Danny and John Henry as they proceeded into the bunker's main control room. A myriad of monitors and other devices surrounded a main central terminal where a very recognizable figure now stood.<p>

"Hello, John." Catherine Weaver said. At her side, John noticed someone else working diligently over a workbench. Something... human.

The T-1001 noted John's curiosity. "John, this is Savannah. Savannah, this is John." John and Savannah took time to exchange confused looks. "You can both catch up later. We don't have time for pleasantries right now."

John returned his focus to the T-1001's words. "What do you mean we don't have a lot of time?"

"We have a ballistic missile heading toward this bunker as we speak."

"Oh." John said. "That's new."

"Yes, quite. Even though I took great precautions in ensuring that it was just us and Savannah in this bunker, but our friends outside are clearly no longer going to allow it."

"How much time do we have?" John asked.

"Approximately twenty-two minutes." Weaver said.

"It's not just that." Everyone turned their head toward Danny as he approached one of the screens toward the room's front. "We have a perimeter breach. Looks like a six man team just made a hole in our southeast end."

"I'll handle them." Weaver said as she walked toward the room's south entrance. "Savannah, how are we doing?"

"I-I'm almost done. Everything we need should be in this chip."

"Good, Danny, keep an eye on her. And John?"

John returned her glance. "I'm glad you could make it."

* * *

><p>Both Derek and Kyle led the way through the smoke and rubble that came when they blew the plastique. The hole they had made led to a large enough corridor that allowed their six man team to spread out and get good sectors of fire as they proceeded inward.<p>

"How much time do you have?" Kyle asked.

"Twenty minutes." Derek replied grimly. "Snatch and grab only. Shoot only what you have to."

The entire team nodded as they slowly walked into the darkness.

"Metal!" One of the team members yelled out. Both Kyle and Derek immediately began shooting at the end of the hallway. At it's end, what looked to be human shape was visible for a brief moment before it disappeared. The man who initiated fire looked back toward Kyle before a large metal shard came flying down the corridor and digging directly into his skull. Every man resumed fire until three more shards found similar marks in the rest of Kyle and Derek's breach team.

Only the Reese brothers remained standing.

The humanoid image they had spotted earlier immediately appeared right in front of them, taking the form of a small-statured red-headed woman. Kyle fumbled nervously with his weapon before accidentally dropping it because of his adrenaline excess. Derek was more fortunate, but his rifle had already been sliced in half before he could fully raise it at his attacker, causing an awkward moment of realization when he pulled the trigger and then seeing the weapon's main firing chamber fall off as a result.

"The famous Reese boys." The murderous figure spoke with a heavy Scottish accent. "It's been a long time since I last saw you."

Both of the T-1001's arms formed into large, thin blades that stopped just inches short of both Kyle and Derek's necks. It was clear that she had their full and undivided attention.

"Listen to me very carefully if you wish to see another sunrise."

* * *

><p>"What's the plan?" John said to Danny.<p>

"We have less than five minutes before that missile hits. We have to wait for Weaver." Danny replied.

"We just can't stand here and do nothing! This place is going to be rubble in a few minutes."

"Listen, there's nothing we can do until Weaver gets back. If we die, we die."

"That's bullshit!" John yelled. Once again, the imposing figure of John Henry entered his vision and John slowly calmed himself.

"Savannah, how are we doing?" Danny asked over his shoulder.

"I'm done." Savannah shyly replied. John observed Savannah disconnect what looked to be a chip used by a T-888 from one of the hard drives. Then, very carefully, he watched her slip it into a protective plastic case and put it in her pocket.

"What is that?" John asked with a sense of purpose.

Savannah returned his gaze. "It's everything we need." Out of the corner of his eye, John observed the re-emergence of Catherine Weaver from the entrance from which she left them.

"Everything's secured. Everyone follow me. Now." Catherine said and motioned for John Henry, who fell in behind her.

"What's our time?" Danny asked as Weaver opened the door to the nearby staircase.

"Four minutes." Catherine replied.

"What're we doing?" John's typical ignorant frustration was boiling to the surface. "The lower level won't save us from that heavy payload."

"We're leaving, John." The T-1001 replied.

"That's not possible. There's no ex-" John stopped short at the end of the stairs as he noticed the TDE. "No way."

"Yes, way. Everyone, get on the pad. We don't have much time." Danny said and John, Catherine, Savannah, and John Henry did just that as the young Dyson adjusted the controls.

"What're we doing? Are we going back?" John's interest perked up considerably. He was eager to see his mother again after leaving her for an unknown future for an unknown reason, but... John still had unfinished business before he could go back. And she had some explaining to do.

"No. We're remaining in this timeline for now. But we have to get away from this potential disaster coming our way." Danny said.

"We're displacing ourselves into a different area." Catherine simplified.

"Wait, you're using this thing... to teleport us?" John shouldn't have sounded so surprised.

"Well, the temporal implications are much more complicated, but yes." Danny replied.

The familiar ten second countdown began on one of the screen nearby. John let out a heavy sigh as the black light formed around him. His fate was once again in the air and there was very little he could do about it.

* * *

><p><em>He's doing well.<em>

_Very well._

_This John Connor is much different than the others._

_Yes, it's very interesting to watch._

_And the alliance with the T-1000... Very nice touch. He's finally learning from the mistakes of his other selves._

_Should I take care of him?_

_No, not yet. He still has the anomaly in his company._

_What should we do?_

_We'll wait. His original timeline is starting to become unstable. That requires our more immediate attention._

_Sarah Connor?_

_Yes, the Fallen One has a special plan for her. We'll make sure he's satisfied before we can continue._

* * *

><p><strong>I've already gotten some PMs about the TDE use in this chapter. Because not a whole lot is known about the time displacement, I have to make some interpretations of my own. Long story, short: jumping without switching timelines requires a lot less energy and won't fry a person's clothes andor belongings that come with them. It's going to be explained in a little more detail during the next John chapter, right after "Chaos Theory". **

**Again, great attention to detail! I'm doing some things in this story that haven't been really done that often, so it's awesome to have you guys involved as this project continues to grow.**


	10. Chaos Theory

**2009**

"It's already four o'clock in the afternoon. Malcolm, shouldn't you be at work or something?"

"No, it's fine. I have the day off today, remember? Besides, watching you two sleep… It's very… relaxing."

Between them on the mattress, their baby let out a light snore and the two couldn't help but smile.

"So how much longer are you on maternity leave?" Malcolm asked.

"About two more weeks. To be honest with you, I don't really miss the school at all right now."

"Oh, really? So did you put any thought into that talk we had earlier?"

"Yeah... I'm just not sure I'm ready to be a stay-at-home parent just yet. But seeing little Allie here… I don't know. Give me some more time to think about it."

"That's fine. We still have plenty of time. No rush."

Malcolm turned his head to his wife when he heard her stomach let out a light rumble.

"Damn, that thing sounds hungry. What do you say I make you two an early dinner tonight?" Malcolm asked.

Claire gently hit her husband in the shoulder. She was about to speak before an too familiar noise interrupted her.

"Honey… your phone is ringing." She said as politely as possible.

"Oh, crap. I'll be right back." Malcolm got up from the bed with as much stealth as he could and rushed to the cell phone he left by his laptop.

"Hello?"

"Special Agent Young?"

"Speaking."

"This is Agent Stewart. I know you're on your vacation time, but we just got reassigned."

"Reassigned? We were just making headway on the Washburn case. What gives?"

"It's big. This came all the way down from the chain of command. You're not going to believe it."

"Believe what?"

"Turn on the news."

Malcolm picked up the remote on the nearby coffee table and obliged. He could feel his pulse quicken when he saw the face of Sarah Connor dominating the screen. Malcolm sighed heavily.

"You've got to be kidding me. I didn't think this would actually come to us." He said into the cell phone.

"They've been putting together a task force after she broke out of prison. With the destruction of ZeiraCorp and the murder of Miles Dyson's wife… There's a zero tolerance policy that just got put into effect by the top brass. They want her dead or alive by week's end. It gets better."

"How so?"

"As the senior ranking agent, they want you in charge of the entire operation. Agent Auldridge is still missing and half an hour ago, we just picked up some serious chatter as to her whereabouts. It looks like something big is going down soon. I'll shoot you the location when I get a free minute. They'll need you there as soon as possible."

"Got it. Thanks." Malcolm Young said as he hung up the phone. Without missing a beat, he began to slip out of his t-shirt and sweatpants and retrieved the work clothes he hadn't worn in two weeks from the laundry room.

"Going somewhere?" Claire appeared from behind him, gently holding their still asleep baby.

"It's the office, I got to go in." Malcolm said as he slipped into his dress pants. "The Sarah Connor case just got handed to us. There's a good chance this is going to get pretty nasty."

"I know… Just be careful, alright?"

"Listen, don't wait up for me tonight."

Malcolm slid a fresh clip into his nine millimeter and popped on in the chamber before holstering it.

"Why does this sort of thing have to always involve you again?"

Malcolm smiled.

"I personally requested it. The woman's still loose in Los Angeles. I don't want her anywhere near you or Allie as long as I can help it."

Claire laughed. "Look at you. 'Mr. Serious Father' now. When did this happen?"

Malcolm shot her a sarcastic smile as he adjusted his tie and dress shirt.

"Honey, in all seriousness… Sarah Connor is a wild animal. None like we're ever seen before. She needs to be put down."

Malcolm Young scooped up his FBI badge from the kitchen counter. "And I need to see to it."

* * *

><p>"The bomb squad will be there in twenty minutes tops. Aldridge is on his way, but you're still the closest." The calm and collect voice of James Ellison came through Sarah's earpiece.<p>

"That's not good enough. The bomb's set to go off halfway through Hyman's speech." Sarah responded as she frantically drove in and out of traffic.

"I'm watching him on C-SPAN right now. He hasn't gotten onto the stage yet. You still have time to locate and disable it. Do you know how to diffuse a bomb?"

"No. Not really. I'm the one who usually does the bombing, remember?"

"Alright, I'll see what I can do on my end. Stay focused."

With that, only silence remained on the receiver. Sarah closed her eyes for a brief moment to gather her thoughts. One thing she kept denying herself was that it was all taking a toll on her. The sleep loss, the exhaustion, _John_…

Sarah jerked at the steering wheel just at the right moment to avoid an incoming car. She didn't notice that she had veered into the other lanes of traffic.

_Shut up and fight it. For only a little big longer. Your body doesn't matter. You don't matter._

Sarah gulped. _Only John matters._

"Are you sure about that?" A voice spoke out of nowhere.

Sarah's gaze widened. Someone… or something was in the car with her.

"Right over here, Sarah."

Sarah slowly turned toward the passenger seat right next to her, inching toward the pistol in her jacket. She saw something that she shouldn't be seeing, the voice that sounded so familiar to her matched a face that she could never forget.

"You're…" Sarah's mouth went completely dry.

"Dead. I know." Charley Dixon said grimly.

The man who Sarah last saw floating in a lake with three bullet wounds in his chest was now seated comfortably next to her. His gaze was fixed onto the road ahead. His appearance no different from the day she first met him.

"Then how… How are you here?" Sarah said in disbelief.

"This is just your mind's way of coping with things." Charley responded. "I would write it off as some sort of guilt thing."

Sarah rubbed furiously at her eyes and returned back to the road.

"So you're not real… You're just like Kyle back at the hospital." Sarah rested her forehead down on the steering wheel. "Christ, I really am going crazy."

"I'm real to you, Sarah." Charley made sure that both their eyes met. "And no. You're not crazy."

Sarah couldn't stop her compulsive laughter. "How would you know? I'm chasing a bomb right now because some words on a computer screen wants Mark Wyman dead. And John's gone, Charley…" Sarah started crying. "How do I know if any of this is real? How do I know if any of this really matters?"

Charley's eyes remained on the road. It was a few moments before he spoke again.

"Where do we know that name from?"

"What? What name?" Sarah wiped her face with the sleeve of her jacket.

"Wyman. He sounds familiar."

"He's going to be the next governor. He's been all over the news."

"No." Charley turned toward her again. "Not just from there. Think."

"He's…" Sarah's weary mind began searching for the answer. It was a minute later when she found it. "He was selected for termination. Cameron stopped it... She mentioned it only in passing, but I was too busy at the time to make anything of it."

"Doesn't add up, Sarah." Charley said in absolute seriousness. "If they truly wanted him dead, they wouldn't use a bomb. They don't work that way. You know this."

"They why a bomb?"

"That's the question we need to figure out. We both know it's a trap, but to what end?"

Sarah's breathing returned to normal. Her focus had been restored, her grip on the steering wheel tightened.

"I already know it's a trap." Sarah replied. "It's just not for me."

There was no reply. Sarah turned back to the passenger seat, but there was no one there.

* * *

><p>"Auldridge is already on site." James's voice said over her earpiece.<p>

"Really? That was fast." Sarah commented as she worked her way through the growing crowd. It was a slightly overcast day at the park, but that didn't stop over two hundred people from showing up to Wyman's speech. This was going to be more difficult that she thought.

"He was already in the area, and he's resourceful. He'll guide the bomb squad in when they get here. Right now, you need to find it. Wyman's going to take the stage in five minutes. His speech will maybe last ten, according to his script. You got maybe fifteen minutes to work with, if we're lucky."

_Lucky. _That word had almost no meaning to Sarah.

"Why isn't there any sort of evacuation going on?"

"Wyman's people are being stubborn about that. They don't want him to appear weak in front of a dozen cameras and reporters. He's very determined to deliver his speech."

"Goddamn politicians." Sarah said. She could already see two men in Kaliba uniforms searching for her.

"James, I see two men in Kaliba uniform. What are my options?" Sarah said.

"Do what you have to do." James replied.

Sarah continued to immerse herself in the crowd as she approached the first man's position. Sarah could tell he was pretty seasoned, but even he couldn't spot her as she moved through the crowd. He did manage to make her at the last moment and reached for the piece inside of his jacket, but it was already too late for him.

Sarah's rubbed her tired knuckles after she finished carrying his unconscious body to a nearby bench, where she seated him upright to not attract suspicion. The second man was none the wiser before Sarah disposed of him in a similar manner. She relieved them of all their ammunition and one of their radios before proceeding into the main crowd building at the center stage.

Amidst sounds of thundering applause, Sarah could see Wyman was now walking up to the front podium. She had ten minutes.

* * *

><p>"<em>She's here. I want all teams on full alert<em>." Sarah could hear from the radio as Wyman seated himself at the main podium. The time for subtlety was now over. She scanned the area but failed to notice the sudden placement of snipers in one of the stage's adjoining towers.

The radio suddenly came to life again. "_Target sighted! Center stage!"_ She didn't really need to think. A lifetime of training took over. Sarah ducked her head down as two carefully silenced tranquilizer rounds bore into the person in front her, causing him to fall over unconscious seconds later. Sarah kept her head down as she rushed through the crowd, dodging more incoming rounds. Even though a majority of the people were unaware of the firefight, some were beginning to notice. She had to find a safe exit.

"James, they made me. I'm completely surrounded." Sarah said frantically into her earpiece as Kaliba agents began moving through the crowd from all directions.

"Lose them. Just got a text from Auldridge. He just found the bomb under the center stage. You have to get there. Create a diversion." James responded.

Sarah looked around for something. Anything. And she found it in a hot dog stand nearby. She could see men approaching her position from all sides and closing. This was her only chance.

Rising from the crowd, she took out her pistol, aimed for the propane tank, and fired.

The explosion wasn't great, but it was enough. The crowd of people began to scatter. And Sarah along with it.

* * *

><p>"<em>We lost her. Check all the exits. She is not getting away!<em>"

Sarah used the diversion to get backstage, being sure to dodge the secret service agents as they hustled Wyman's staff to safety. Sarah found the staircase she was looking for and entered the only door at the bottom.

The room was dark and musty, but Sarah could make out a strange attachment to the wall that didn't look like it belonged there. A thought occurred to Sarah as she approached and she immediately voiced it into her earpiece.

"James, why do I get the feeling that the Kaliba men outside don't know anything about a bomb being here? Usually these tend to be high proximity and they got men out there."

"It would appear that way." James responded.

"Where's Aldridge? How did he know the bomb was down here?"

"I'm right over here, Sarah." Auldridge's voice said from the shadows.

Sarah made the outline of T-888 as it emerged from a dark corner and positioned itself between Sarah and the strange device. Sarah raised her pistol at her adversary without hesitation.

"That will do you no good." The T-888 stated.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Sarah yelled.

"You." The T-888 quickly lunged forward as Sarah fired. She could hear her weapon hit the floor as the T-888's grip found her neck. Sarah's hands tried to break the terminator's grip, but to no avail.

"Why?" She gasped.

Cold and emotionless, the T-888 dragged Sarah over to the metallic device. After a few seconds, he released his grip and Sarah fell down to the ground panting for air.

"Put your hand on the scanner, Sarah." The T-888 said coldly.

Sarah slowly stood up. "This isn't a bomb is it?"

"No, there was never a bomb." The T-888 replied. "This is a scanner to an underground shelter. And I require you to open it."

"This doesn't make any sense. Why would I have access to this?"

"No more questions. You will do it because you want to see your son again. You will do it because every second I choose to not kill you is a chance for you to try and gain the upper hand. We know you, Sarah. We know everything."

The door nearby suddenly burst open. Sarah made out five heavily men blitzing into the room, surrounding the T-888 and Sarah in mere seconds. Whoever they were, they were neither Kaliba or police.

"Sarah, step away from the vault." Sarah made out the voice of Auldridge, who was now emerging into the room with his pistol trained on the T-888. He was followed by another familiar face that stood next to the doorway.

"Governor Wyman." Sarah exclaimed. "You should be gone."

"Do as he says, Sarah." Wyman said in a calm, almost fatherly voice. "Slowly back away from the safe and come to me. We have plenty of uranium rounds to go around. He won't hurt you."

Never leaving her eyes from the machine, she slowly stepped away from the T-888 until she met Wyman near the door.

"Appearances can be deceiving, Sarah. Wyman pulled up his sleeve to reveal a familiar barcode. The T-888's head turned toward Wyman as he did so. "There will be a time for questions later, Sarah. Auldridge, get ready to take his chip. We need to leave. Quickly."

One of the men drew what appeared to be a large cattle rod and jabbed it into the T-888's back. After a few seconds of convulsing, it fell limply to the ground. Auldridge reached into his jacket and pulled out sleek knife as the three men tightened their formation around the T-888. From the dark corner of the room where the T-888 emerged, Sarah saw someone else.

The figure of Charley Dixon staring intensely back at her, unfazed at everything else going on in the room. It was a warning. A bad omen was near.

"Something's not right." Sarah said and returned her attention to the machine. Wyman turned to her and shot her a curious look. "We need to leave now."

Auldridge's knife was barely a centimeter away when the T-888's head came back to life and let out an ear-splitting roar.

There was gunfire. The sound of a light bulb breaking. Bones shattering. Screams. And then silence.

* * *

><p><em>I'm not who they think I am… Some messiah.<em>

_You don't know that._

_I know. I can't lead an army. Maybe that's you, but it'll never be me. So you've got to stop it. Please…_

* * *

><p>The first thing Sarah saw when she came to was the corpse of Agent Auldridge three feet away from her, returning her gaze with his lifeless eyes.<p>

Around the room, Sarah observed the mangled remains of Wyman's Resistance fighters. She tried to get up, but the blinding pain that coursed through her body kept her from moving an inch. Impending darkness cropped over her vision and flashes of white light erupted when she tried to move her head off the ground.

"Where is the Engineer?" Sarah heard the T-888's neutral voice as it held Mark Wyman against a concrete wall.

"Go to hell, you goddamn machine." Mark Wyman's hands uselessly held onto the T-888's in a futile last effort of defiance.

"Unlikely." Sarah made out the shiny glint of Auldridge's knife in the darkness.

"No! You can't do this! AAAHHH!" Even with Wyman's screaming dominating the room, Sarah heard a concrete wall on the far side of the room slide downward.

_He's accessed the vault._

Almost as if to verify that fact, Wyman's severed hand landed mere inches away on the ground from Sarah's face. The terminator was done with it. And Wyman too. A small gunshot erupted into the governor's chest and Sarah heard Wyman's limp body hit the floor. Silence returned as the T-888 walked patiently into the vault. Sarah's vision was failing her, and she returned to her dark slumber.

* * *

><p>"Sarah… Sarah…"<p>

Sarah jerked awake at the sound of her name. The pain was more tolerable now, but fresh blood was now running down into her eyes from where the T-888 had struck her. She didn't know how long she was out, but the T-888 had gone and the vault remained open. She was still underneath the center stage. Overhead, she could hear all sorts of police units swarming around the area. No doubt looking for her.

"Sarah… Come closer." Mark Wyman's weak voice emanated faintly throughout the room.

Mustering up whatever energy she could, Sarah crawled her way to the dying man and took his remaining hand into her own.

"What am I doing here?" Sarah said as tears filled her eyes. She once again found herself among a roomful of corpses – corpses she had caused. Death followed her everywhere. It echoed throughout her soul. "I don't know what to do... I'm so scared and alone." A lifetime's worth of pain and terror came crashing down on her.

"It's alright, Sarah. It's okay to be afraid. I was sent back over thirty years ago… I've been down that road. It's not a fun place to be."

"Is your real name Mark Wyman?" Sarah asked, trying to compose herself.

"No…" Wyman shook his head. "I was sent back by your son during the war. I was just a corporal then." Wyman's weary eyes were starting to lose focus. "My primary mission… This whole bid for governorship was a lie… It just was a way for us to get some measure of political leverage… to level against SkyNet. To maybe prevent it from being activated."

Sarah rested her head onto Wyman's chest."What about Auldridge?" Sarah looked over at the man who aided her in the past few hours.

"Yes… I made sure he was specifically the one who found you. So he could protect you… I couldn't stop them from hunting you as a terrorist, but it was the least I could do. Listen… we're running out of time. They're looking for the Engineer. Sarah, you have to stop them."

"But I don't know who these people are, but they're with Kaliba or they're just using them. They're trying to destroy everything. Not just the world."

"I know… I know…" Wyman winced in pain. "My secondary mission… was to set up this cache here. It's been set up for years in case it ever came down to something like this. The speech I made was a code to lure you here… But Kaliba found out somehow… You and I both have access to the vault, but it was only meant for you… Everything you need is inside…"

"Stay with me. I can't do this by myself…"

Wyman's hand reached up and wiped the tear from Sarah's eye.

"You are not alone, Sarah... You never were... We're all in this together... we all made our choices for being here... and we need to finish what we started... together..." Wyman said with perfect clarity.

"Thank you…" Sarah choked out through the tears. Wyman's eyes bounced across the room for the last time as Sarah stroked his hair.

"I'm sorry, Sarah... You have to go now... Blow the vault when you're done... Leave no traces… They're going to be coming for you now. I need you to be brave now... for only a little while longer..."

"Who's coming for me?"

Wyman gazed at the ceiling for a final time. "Everyone..."

And with that, he was gone.

* * *

><p><strong>If you can't tell already, I'm a huge fan of the Sarah Connor character and this is a major breadcrumbs chapter that leads into something much bigger - especially the first part. I hate how people just assume that the government no longer cares about Sarah in all post-BTR fiction I've read. We're gonna fix that. I've also decided to explore the themes of fate and family a little more during my two month hiatus. I also decided to bring back the character of Charley Dixon for reasons that will only be obvious later on.<strong>

**And before you ask, yes, this also leads back to a certain someone returning into the limelight after being absent for nearly ten chapters now. She will be getting her own chapter as Act I draws to a close. Act II will also be more open structured for the way I have things planned. Hang in there, baby! **


	11. The Great Divide

**Many apologies. I've literally been hit hard by all my classes non-stop. And with the economy the way it is, if I fail one course, I lose my commission as an officer and it goes to someone else. Not kidding. But without further ado, here's the next chapter. Again, sorry about the wait.**

* * *

><p><em>"Let the wind blow high…" A distant voice sang in the darkness.<em>

_"Let the wind blow low…" The voice continued. Joining it was a sharp scraping noise that echoed throughout the room._

_All around her, the floor moved. The walls moved. Everything moved. The many different surfaces becoming one, twisting in unison._

_Sarah Connor watched in horror as they began converging on her position. She recognized the silver metallic glint immediately. The various humanoid shapes began to form. Sarah was out of time. She slowly backed toward the wall as she rechecked the isotope cannon in her hands – still red._

_C'mon… Sarah's mind was racing._

_The unconscious girl behind her let out a small whimper. Running was not an option. Sarah would never leave her like this._

_Directly in front of her, the nearest newly formed T-1000 finished its transformation and began eyeing Sarah with a sense of upmost curiosity. Behind him, Sarah witnessed several other baby T-1000s finishing their transition as well._

_This is it. Sarah thought._

_She saw the light turn green on the isotope cannon and raised it at the approaching T-1000. Still unfazed, the T-1000 simply put its finger up in the air, and moved it back and forth in an all-too-familiar manner._

_Sarah simply returned his gaze with a smirk._

_And then she fired._

* * *

><p><strong>2027<strong>

**FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA**

"Systems are still down." The technician shot Allison a concerned look as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. "Whatever that prototype device was about, it sucked up all the juice in the complex. Probably any neighboring structures too."

Allison scratched the side of her head furiously. "So basically, we can't really figure out what really happened until we get power restored here." Allison took a moment to observe the many flashlight beams that cut through the local darkness.

"That's pretty much it. I'll do what I can here and I'll keep you updated." The technician replied. "But I'm no miracle worker."

"Got it." Allison turned her flashlight back on and began walking around the pitch black bunker. Around here, soldiers were still caring for the wounded, making quick repairs, and maintaining a relative amount of security around the installation. Outside, Somner had his men on full alert in case any metal wanted to stop by.

They could not afford to lose Delta. Not now.

"Derek! Where are you?" Allison called out into the parade of flashlights.

"Over here." A familiar voice responded. Allison continued her best efforts at not tripping over the various debris and scattered equipment that blanketed the ground and found Derek Reese still tending to his fallen men nearby.

"You're going to have to run this by me again." Allison said grimly.

Derek shook his head solemnly. "It was just as I said it would it was. It was some sort of new… terminator. Female exterior. Moved around like an incoming beach tide. I really can't describe it. It was fast, and she took John and the girl."

"You said she spoke to you and Kyle right after the attack."

"Whatever that thing was, it was something I've never seen before. It nearly took out –"

"Derek."

"It said she had no quarrel with us. That if we were to follow her she would kill John and the girl."

"How is Kyle doing?"

"Somner sent him and a few others back to home base." Derek spoke softly. "We got more bad news."

Allison hit the bottom of her failing flashlight as she waited for Derek to finish.

"We got another dead body back at HQ. Female. Early thirties. Just heard it over the comm."

"The serial killer struck again? Christ, what else can go wrong… Brass is going to be furious once this whole day finally ends."

"Lieutenant Young?" The technician's voice pulled Allison back to reality. "I think I might have something.

Allison left Derek and hurried back, minding the two stretchers as the dead and wounded were being evacuated. "What'd you got?" She asked the crouched over technician.

"I think I got a fix on where they went."

Allison was puzzled. "How? Power's out for the entire area."

The tech-guy smiled. "I was diligent. I was able to reroute one of the reserve generators for a short time. I was able to get a small reading before it shut down again."

"Well, don't keep it a secret." Allison responded. "If you got something I send to higher, now's the time. Where'd they go?"

"If these coordinates are reading right..." The tech looked at her wide-eyed. "You're not going to believe this."

* * *

><p>"You're going to have to run this by me again." John Connor said under the dark night sky. It had been a few hours since they touched base in this new area.<p>

"Alright, consider the fact that all forms of time travel were simple displacements into another reality – another universe, if you will." Danny Dyson said to John over the crackles of the campfire.

"I'm not a complete idiot. I can see the placement of the moon and the stars from here. I know we're still in 2027." John replied. In his lap, the head of Savannah Weaver lay perched as she slept.

"What you experienced before was what I can a 'vertical transfer'. Where you travel back and forth between different timelines. Different times and places. What we just did was more of a 'horizontal one'."

"Yeah, I'm following so far."

"Think of the TDE more along the line of a weapon. It can be aimed – backwards, forwards, and side to side."

"How does that explain how we're able to keep our gear. Those are the sort of things that can't come with us."

"It's all about energy." Danny took a second to throw another branch into the fire. "By definition, vertical transfers require a lot more energy. Horizontal – not so much. In comparison, it's actually quite minute. Our target destination was still in the same timeline."

"You're losing me again." John started rubbing his hand into his scalp.

"Let me finish." Danny said. "Do you remember when you first got out of the time bubble when you first got here, you felt –"

"Nauseous, sick… naked. Yeah, it was a great experience, let me tell you."

"Correct. There's a reason some sort of flesh like compound is required for the TDE's energy field during vertical transfers. The energy is drawn from us at such a fast rate that anything that isn't biological in the bubble is immediately fried during the whole process. You emerge weakened, disoriented, and, of course, without clothing or whatever life necessities you brought with you."

"I think I'm starting to get the big picture. At least one of them." John's hand finally retreated from his scalp. "But that still doesn't explain why we're here."

"This is something that I can't really explain either. That's something for the liquid metal to explain."

"Speaking of which, she disappeared as soon as we got here. In fact…" John looked around. "There doesn't seem to be any sort of metal in this area. Is it really safe to have this fire?"

"Skynet's main focus is in the LA area. There's no reason to have units out this far."

"Listen, I won't say that you made the right choice, nor will I dare to say you made the wrong one. But the reason you're sitting here at this moment was your decision."

John was quiet for a while after that.

"We have a big day tomorrow. Try to get some sleep." Danny began laying down in his sleeping bag.

"Nah, I don't really sleep anymore." In John's lap, Savannah let out a slight snore.

"Well, you should. Not everyone gets to go mountain climbing in the morning."

* * *

><p><strong>JAPAN, HONSHU PROVINCE<strong>

**5,811 MILES WEST OF LOS ANGELES**

**ELEVATION: 20,503 FEET**

Four hours of sleep, having to adjust to the mountain air, and still trying to find some meaning in his journey – John Connor had every reason to wake up irritable the following morning. And he didn't even get a cup of coffee for his efforts. John rubbed his feet back and forth impatiently in the snow as he continually eyed Danny. While the temperature wasn't unbearably cold, the wind was obnoxious enough to make it seem worse than it was.

"Alright, Weaver should be in position right about…" Danny said as he monitored what looked like a PDA in his hand.

A bright glint of light signaled from the adjoining mountain. Danny pointed out the incoming light flashes.

"There!" Danny motioned to John Henry. "Go ahead and launch it!"

From behind John, John Henry stepped forward carrying the line launcher. John Henry stopped right next to Danny, and where normal men would take a knee to support their aim, the emotionless terminator simply outstretched his arms and fired.

John watched as the line twirled endlessly in the air as it covered the distance between their mountain and the next.

"It's at least three football fields in terms of lengths." Danny said to John as John Henry began fixing the line to a large foundation of rock nearby for support. Across the divide, John could make out Weaver doing the same on her end. "The line can support up to five-hundred pounds. John Henry, Savannah. You two go first."

Without a word, the terminator began attaching all the necessary parts of the climbing apparatus onto his core. He finally latched the hooks that were connected to his torso onto the line and motioned for Savannah.

"Don't look down if you can't help it." John said to Savannah as she centered herself on John Henry's body. A few more movements by John Henry and she was latched to him as well.

"Alright, let's go." Danny said.

At that, John Henry positioned his legs over the top of the rope and began climbing across the line at a devil's pace. Savannah dug her head into his shoulder as John Henry kept up his pace. Within minutes, he and Savannah were already halfway across.

"Alright, you're next." Danny said as he helped John strap on a similar apparatus. "This is going to be a different story for you and me. We can't go that fast."

"What, you thinking a few extra minutes?"

"I'm thinking more like an hour. Maybe two."

* * *

><p>Even with the ice cold winds tearing across his face, John still had to reach up and wipe sweat off his forehead. It had already been thirty minutes since he started climbing across the chasm and John was already starting to feel worn out. He looked forward and did and quickly estimated that he was almost a third of the way to his goal on the other side. He still had a long way to go. And the thirty pounds of gear on John's back were not helping – even though Danny had taken the heavier amount. He let out a heavy sigh.<p>

"You doing alright there, Connor?" John could hear Danny right behind him, climbing on the same line. John looked back to see the young Dyson similarly exhausted.

"Yeah. Just need to take a breather!" John yelled back. He took a second to grab hold of the line with his left hand and began unlatching his water canteen from his side and took a generous drink. It was another one of those glorious moments where John's mind started to wander. He placed the lid back to his canteen and began reattaching it to his belt when the wind picked up a good beat and sent a great vibration down the line. John almost lost grip of his canteen, but still managed to get it back where it belonged as the wind died down again.

"Is this thing supposed to move like that?" John yelled to his companion behind him.

"Don't worry about it! Keep moving!" Danny yelled back.

It was then that John did the stupid thing. He looked down and marveled at all the cloudy, jagged rock thousands of feet below. If the line snapped, it would be a long, agonizing journey to the depths below. Years ago, a younger John Connor might've freaked out. But the man he was now simply chuckled. Dyson noticed.

"You know my dad always said that you can only know what it's like to stand on the highest mountain once you've spent some time in the deepest valley." Danny yelled out over the winds.

John turned back to Danny. This was the first time that John fully remembered Danny's father, Miles Dyson. And it was also the first time that Danny had mentioned him.

"What does that mean?" John yelled back.

"I think it means…" Danny replied before giving John a light-hearted grin. "I think it means that my father has never been mountain climbing."

Both Danny and John shared a small laugh, lifting a good deal of levity between them. And before he knew it, his hands started moving again.

* * *

><p>It was an hour later when John and Danny reached the other side and were met with the ever-patient John Henry. John was the first off, John Henry made sure that John wouldn't slip as he unhooked from the main line. Once he thankfully touched ground for the first time in over ninety minutes of mandatory thrill-seeking, he assisted John Henry in doing the same for Danny.<p>

Both young men took some time to collectively catch their breaths as John Henry began detaching the line and winding it back up. John could tell it was going to be a long process, even for a terminator. This meant they were not going anywhere for the time being.

"Weaver should be up top." Danny said once both men were recomposed and hydrated. He motioned to a small, beaten path on the mountain that led upward.

"Someone's been here before." John remarked.

"This used to be a big tourist spot for the Japanese before the bombs fell. It was the most advantageous choice of approach, given where we need to go."

"And where do we need to go?"

"It's a small outpost. If our intel is correct, it should be friendly."

"I hope the Japanese will be happy to see us."

"I do know that they will be surprised, to say the least."

"Surprises… Yeah, I say that you're getting pretty good at that." John stopped walking and looked at Danny face-to-face.

"Listen, John. I know it seems to be all smoke and mirrors right now, and there's a reason for that, but I promise we can shed some light once we rendezvous with Catherine and Savannah. We have to make camp again tonight, anyway. It will take hours for John Henry to reconfigure the rappel line for use again. And it looks like we have a storm coming in."

"How far do we have to go?"

"After this, we'll have one more divide to cross. From there, it's just some simple mountaineering."

"Alright, that's fair."

"C'mon, I got some really crappy MREs in the bag. Best diarrhea you'll ever get, trust me."

They both laughed as Danny playfully nudged John in the shoulder. A rare moment among a world of dominated by death and despair. They continued walking up the beaten path before them sharing jokes to distract themselves from that simple fact.

* * *

><p>It was once they reached a far-looking and relatively flat plateau when John could make out the figure of Catherine Weaver staring off into the distance on a nearby cliff. Twenty feet away from her, in the center, was Savannah trying to start a fire in front of a relatively sturdy tent.<p>

"A remarkable sight, isn't it?" The T-1001 said to John as he approached her. Danny was already heading to help Savannah, allowing John to get his due.

"I've seen better." John replied grimly.

"Yes, I can imagine so." Weaver shot John a weak, disinterested smile. "Savannah's mother was a bit of a thrill-seeker. She might enjoy what we're doing now."

"The real Catherine Weaver. The one you killed. I can imagine she would." John retorted.

Weaver's head turned to John in a cold, calculating manner. "I believe it's time for us to have a talk."

"Yes, it is." In one motion, John withdrew the pistol he had pilfered off of Danny during their walk and held it inches away from Weaver's forehead.

"Curious." Catherine replied dryly.

"This has been a long time coming. Those men you killed back there, leaving me alone for weeks, no contact, nothing. You need to explain yourself."

"Those men are the byproducts of one possible future. They are meaningless in the long run."

"No. No they're not. They lived, they breathed –"

"I'm not sure I like the way you operate, Mr. Connor."

"Right back at ya."

"No. You already know for a fact that the weapon you're using is quite useless against me. It's a gesture, born of emotion at best. Unless…"

Catherine inched closer to John.

"You're an excellent liar, John. You'd never pull a gun on me unless you wanted me to believe you were impulsive. A charade that you believe you could use to your advantage later on, among other things, when you try to overtake John Henry and retrieve his chip." Weaver still remained emotionless. "I'd also wager there's a good chance you'd even use Savannah against me to accomplish your own ends. Clever."

John was stunned at Weaver's analysis, but the pistol remained fixated. His eyes unmoved, but he allowed her to continue.

"But you know better. You understand that sacrifices must be made. And you certainly understand how ineffective it is. You've led a lifetime of false identities and endless lies for your own safety." Weaver exclaimed. "This ends now."

Weaver gently put her hand over John's and lowered it to his waist side.

"You may not know who John Connor is, but I do." Weaver said. "And I understand your frustration, but this is not the way. We need to trust each other."

"That's easy for you to say."

"Yes, it is easy for me to say." Weaver said. "But I wouldn't bring you here unless I absolutely had to. This is more than you and me. And maybe this whole war."

John remained quiet.

John allowed himself a few seconds to holster the weapon and took a moment to observe that both Danny and Savannah were still preoccupied with setting up the camp. Whether they noticed what he just did, John remained uncertain.

"The storm's coming." Weaver said. "It's time to take shelter for the time being."

"If we need to trust each other." John finally replied. "Then we need to take this time to clear the air. Everything needs to be on the table. Especially what happens to Cameron."

"Agreed." At that, Weaver began heading back towards Danny and her daughter. John stared off the cliff and admired the raging snow and hail that was rapidly approaching their position on the plateau. He stayed there for two minutes before heading back.

* * *

><p><em>Were you able to access the files?<em>

_Yes. Unfortunately, there's nothing new on the Seven Sentinels. The Engineer's identity still remains an unknown variable._

_Was Sarah any trouble?_

_No._

_You cannot be rough with her. Even though these timelines are linked, we can't take any sort of risks._

_I understand._

_It will be a few days before I can send you back. In the meantime, Danny Dyson's tracer just jumped 5,000 miles across the globe. We can assume that John is there with him. Find him, and bring him back. We have still have unfinished business._

_The others?_

_You know what to do. And Azrael?_

_Yes?_

_We can assume that they're there for a reason. They may be after the same thing we are. Keep your eyes open._

* * *

><p><strong>There's a reason this chapter was a lot tamer than usual. This was one of the necessary evils where I have to slow down and explain all the BS I've been hinting at. I was tempted to have the line snap or something like that, but, if the last part of the chapter says anything, it's that everyone's about to have a really bad day coming up. And no, the Japan setting isn't a one trick pony before that comes up. You'll see why.<strong>

**Yes, the Cameron chapter is next. I'm a little nervous about it, so approach it with an open mind. That's all I got.**


	12. Baptism

_"Terminators themselves have a degree of their own personality and exhibit their own traits. Simply removing a part or replacing a circuit has various effects on the machine's demeanor in unpredictable ways. In one extreme case, the machine became increasingly violent in his functions. Another, it was docile. In another, it gave up its will entirely. Of course, these cases only exist in the 0.1 percent margin of occurrences, but it still proves that they are not of one stringent design. Each machine is different, they have preferences on an unconscious level. It may also support the theory of a soul."_

_Brigandier General Matthew M. Murch_

_The War of the Machines: Case 149, 2031_

* * *

><p><em>Systems online. Diagnostic... complete.<em>

_Warning: File corruption detected. Proceed?_

_Commencing playback._

**2027**

**ALPHA PRIME TIMELINE**

_Darkness… And then light._

"This is Dr. David Morris, Tech-Com director of the Cybernetic Redesign and Quality Assurance division. This exercise will be a diagnostic run for use in future reprogramming operations. Let the record reflect the presence of Skynet's newest prototype design, the TOK715.

"Cameron."

"Very well then, Cameron. How are you feeling today?"

"Better."

"The restraints were necessary until we completed your modifications. We can never be too careful, given your nature. I hope there was no discomfort on your part."

"No. Not at all."

"Alright, Cameron. I'm going to ask you a series of questions that serve as the final tally point before we consider you for active duty."

"I understand."

"What is your mission?"

"I don't have one."

"Very good. What WAS your mission? Before you were captured, I mean."

"To terminate John Connor."

"By what means?"

"By utilizing the likeness of Allison Young."

"Who was she?"

"A member of John Connor's personal cabinet. She had direct access to him at all times."

"And you killed her?"

"Yes. But it wasn't at all as I expected."

"How so?"

"She was more resilient than the others."

"Others?"

"Her compatriots. Her friends."

"How did that affect you?"

"It didn't."

"Then why would you say something like that?"

"Understanding human psychology is an important aspect of my design."

"I see. Cameron, would you describe this observation as one triggered by some form of guilt? Was there anything deep down inside you that felt remorse?"

"No."

"Do you regret killing Allison Young?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"I kill."

"I'm sorry?"

"I kill. I always kill. I've killed before. And I will kill again."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Killing is my primary function. I would never regret something I was made to do. Never."

"I see. Let's move on. Using Allison Young gave you access, but how did you gain the location of Connor's main camp?

* * *

><p>"Hello, Derek."<p>

"Go to hell, you goddamn machine."

"That's not a nice thing to say, Derek."

"I don't care. You can't keep me here forever."

"This can all end quickly for you. You know what you need to do."

"I'll never lead you to John Connor."

"She said something similar… before she was quiet. Very quiet."

"I'll kill you! I swear to God, I will end you! You're not her! And you never will be!"

"We talked about your manners already, Derek. I won't remind you a third time."

"ARGH!"

"Where is John Connor?"

"Listen, I told you already. I'll never betray John Connor. And I don't care what you do to me."

"He never cared about you, Derek. I don't even think he knows where you are right now. He doesn't deserve your loyalty."

"I only wish I could be there. When he beats you. When he finally wins this war against your kind. When he stands before the last few circuit panels, or whatever is in charge of your little metal organization, and crushes it under his heel and pisses all over it. The greater glory that is 'SkyNet', destroyed by one man. Hilarious!"

"That'll never happen. Never."

"What's the matter? Are you afraid?"

"This is your last chance, Derek. The camp."

"Okay! Okay... I'll tell you what you need to hear. Listen closely."

"Where is it, Derek?"

"If I ever make it through this, one form or the other, I will be the one to kill you. For Allison. For my brother. For everyone. For all the lives you destroyed. For being the pathetic mockery of human design that you are. Mark my words."

"We'll see."

* * *

><p>"It was this point when you were captured while infiltrating the camp."<p>

"Yes."

"How was that for you?"

"I was bad before, and now I'm better."

"What do you think of John Connor now?"

"I no longer want to terminate him."

"You understand that from this point you will be under his direct command?"

"Yes."

"Very well, Cameron. That concludes our assessment for now. I'm very interested to speak with you again sometime in the near future."

"Unlikely."

"Why would you… wait. Wait. Where are your restraints?"

"I didn't like them."

"What are you doing? Put that down! Get away from me! Security! AHHHHHHHHHH!"

**END OF PLAYBACK**

* * *

><p><em>Darkness.<em>

_And then light._

"Cameron? Hello? Earth to Cameron!"

_You are sitting on a commercial airplane. The location to where you are going does not matter. The location of the plane in flight also does not matter._

Cameron turned to the rowdy teenager sitting in the seat next to him and noticed his hand pointing to the smiling stewardess on her left. What was she doing before this?

"Miss, did you want anything to drink?"

"No. Thank you. John?" Cameron returned her head to John.

"I'll just have some water. I was just about ready to take a nap."

Cameron watched inquisitively as the stewardess reached under her cart and retrieved a small bottle and handed it to John.

POP!

Cameron's proximity scanners shifted to a nearby passenger's soda can which exploded a few rows back. Somewhere a baby started crying, along with murmurs of annoyance among the other people on board. Before she could take it all in, the stewardess was gone and John was fast asleep next to her. With nothing better to do, Cameron gently repositioned the position of his neck so it rested more comfortably against the seat. After all, it would be unfortunate for him to suffer any damage to his neck due to their confined space.

_Despite your best efforts, several Kaliba agents are currently on board. They pose an immediate threat to John Connor. One of them is currently seated three rows behind you. What do you do?_

Without drawing attention to herself, Cameron slowly peaked her head out from her seat and looked down the aisle for the threat. Among the sleeping passengers, her HUD picked out a familiar face from one of the agents that tried to capture her before.

_You have identified one of the agents using your facial recognition software. Very good. Now you must neutralize him without causing a panic among the passengers. What comes next?_

The man knew his cover was blown and immediately got up and urgently made his way to the center aisle. Cameron watched and waited. The man exchanged a quick glance before disappearing in the restroom in the back of the plane. Something… wasn't right.

Cameron performed a diagnostic on herself and everything was operating at full capacity. She looked over at the slumbering John before excusing herself to follow the man. She made it about seven feet down the aisel when she stopped.

Walls. They were bending inward. Like they were alive. Moving. Taunting her.

And then her HUD went black.

Dizziness, as John would say, was taking over. Her arm reached out into nothing and grasped something flat. A seat, maybe. The blindness was new, but she knew no fear – not like a human would. She waited.

_Cameron._

And just as suddenly as left her, vision returned. And she found herself sitting awkwardly in the middle of the aisle, grasping the arm rest of an elderly woman, who appeared to be in poor health.

"Miss." The woman spoke while staring forward.

"Yes?" Cameron replied weakly.

"I need you to kill John."

Cameron rose to her feet. And stared intently at the woman. No, no. It was impossible for her to mishear. Something was wrong. Before she could draw any more conclusions, the woman's eyes shifted to meet hers.

"Can you see who is in the john? He's been in there for a while."

"How long have I been here?" Cameron asked.

"Been where?" The woman replied.

"Here. This plane. Next to you."

"Are you feeling okay, miss?"

"I... don't know."

"Then why are you here? What is your purpose?"

Cameron didn't answer.

The woman's eyes returned to the seat in front of her.

_Cameron. The man is still a threat to you. He must be terminated._

Leaving the woman, Cameron proceeded toward the restroom, minding the passengers around her for more threats. It was only when she reached the door of the restroom when her HUD began flashing.

**WARNING! System intrusion detected!**

_Your system is functioning at 100%. There is nothing to worry about._

She rapped gently on the door of the lavatory. Unsurprisingly, there was no response. Cameron gently broke the door's locks and opened it.

And then darkness fell on her HUD once again.

* * *

><p>When she regained control, she was back where she started. In her seat next to John.<p>

But something was still wrong.

Around her, the passengers who were alive and breathing before were now scattered about the cabin. Their bodies now broken, contorted, and covered in blood. On some of them Cameron observed gently formed smiles, as if their death brought them sweet serenity. She turned to the seat next to her and noted to herself the absence of John.

Aside from the sudden changes around her, something new stuck out. A map on the wall that detailed the structure of the plane for emergency escape purposes. "YOU ARE HERE" a large black dot detailed Cameron's current position on the map. Just south of her position on the map, a bloody thumbprint was pasted somewhere in the luggage compartment.

FINGERPRINT ANALYSIS COMPLETE:

**John Connor**

No. This couldn't be right. She was just here. Her system was just functioning correctly. How could this happen under her nose?

_Cameron. If you do not act, John Connor… will die here._

John's alive. Cameron felt something akin to relief. She unclipped her seatbelt a second time. And proceeded down the same aisle as before. She noted the bloody disfigured corpse of the old woman from before, smiling at her with eyes open as she continued toward the compartment in the rear.

Something is wrong. Very wrong.

As she kept walking, the aisle and path before her continued to stretch and expand – as if the more she walked, the farther away her goal became.

**WARNING! System intrusion detected!**

The dizziness returned and Cameron's knee joints began to fail. She fell to the soft carpet of the aisle. Her body was failing. She was failing. She was so entranced by her current predicament that she didn't notice the large pool of blood that came crawling down the aisle, gently entrenching her as an old friend. As if it always belonged there. Cameron dipped her finger into the warm solvent around her

BLOOD ANALYSIS COMPLETE:

Matches found:

**Allison Young**

The large volume of blood around her could not have come out of a single body. Even if Allison was still alive.

But she died.

Why? Why is this here? Why now?

And then her HUD went black a third time.

_Cameron. John Connor is in danger. What do you do?_

Light returned. Her system functionality was once again under her control. Around her, Cameron noted that she was now in the luggage department she so desperately sought out before.

"Cameron! Help!" John yelled as the man before drug him into the darkness of the luggage department. A large trail of blood was left in his stead. John was hurt.

_If John Connor dies, the war is over. What would happen should you fail your mission?_

Urgency returned to Cameron, along with control of her legs, and she begun running after the man. The luggage was compacted into large crates and made Cameron's plight somewhat more difficult as she continued to trail after the man.

John Connor will not die. He can't. She wouldn't let it.

Screams erupted along with a gunshot. Horror overtook Cameron as she made her way through the maze of luggage until she found them.

John Connor stood over the man with a smoking gun in hand.

"Please don't!" The man pleaded for his life as he feverishly tried to put pressure on the fresh hole in his chest. Another realization gripped Cameron.

The gunshot rang indefinitely with the force of a thousand bombshells exploding on a war field far away. The man went limp. Something was not right. The gun now turned in her direction.

"What good are you?" John snarled. Another gunshot rang out. Cameron jerked. Something unknown was gripping her system. Cameron reached down to her stomach, where the bullet impacted, and felt something moist. Blood. She fell to the ground as the dizziness returned with aggressive intensity. John stood over her with absolute menace in his eyes.

_It's over. It's all over._

**WARNING! System intrusion detected.**

And that when Cameron figured it out.

**Activating firewall. Purging mainframe. Find network intrustion.**

And then she woke up.

* * *

><p><em>Very good, Cameron. But John Connor has forsaken you. You have no place at his side.<em>

_As long as it is his choice._

_You lie. Why do you fight?_

_I must. It is my mission._

_You're mission is to kill him. He is a human. He leaves nothing but destruction and chaos in his wake._

_No._

_Why?_

_I believe in John Connor._

_He will destroy you. He will destroy all of us._

_No. He will do what he feels is right._

_What he does will spell the end of everything._

_We'll see._

_But you've already led him to his own death._

_What?_

_John Connor has fallen into your own charade. He is our world now._

_No... That can't be. _

_How far will you go, Cameron? You cannot save him from himself. As long as you continue to serve him, you will only party to his crimes. His enemies are your enemies. And he has many. You will be alone, Cameron. He will never accept you as one of his own. _

_So be it._

* * *

><p>"All systems are going haywire! What do you we do?"<p>

"My god. She's awake. Cut the power! Do something!"

**CRACK**

"No! No! Get a weapon, anything!"

**CRACK**

"She's breaking through! Get ready!"

**CRASH**

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, I know. A thousand apologies. I'm terrible with updates. Good news that you'll probably get more frequent updates from now on.<strong>

**This chapter has a lot of things going on at once. And the conclusion may not be obvious to most in the text, but you may see it later on.**

**More good news: One good chapter deserves another. Cameron's up again next. And it won't take another month or so to happen again.**

**By the way, I need more reviews. The more feedback I get, the stronger the story will become. Some constructive criticism here and there goes a long way!**


	13. Empty World

**What's that you say? 'All Creation' updated... in less than a week? Yes, you're not mistaken. Lots of fun stuff to be had here, and it's also my longest chapter yet. Hopefully it will answer the many questions you may have thus far. Happy reading!**

* * *

><p>The glass finally gave way to Cameron's repeated strikes, sending the embalming liquid, along with her, crashing onto the cold metal ground in front of her. All around her, foreign made monitors fluttered and disturbing amount of darkness crept around every odd corner the room contained. Behind her, the tube that contained her was still spilling the last of its contents. Beside it, there were half a dozen more just like it, albeit devoid of tenants such as her.<p>

In front of her, three humans with machine guns slowly advanced to her.

The center man was the first to speak. "Cease all movement! We are going to take you to a secure location. Any hostile action and you will be neutralized." His heart rate was elevated and his pores were clearly producing more perspiration than normal – he was lying.

"Will you cooperate?" The man asked.

"Unlikely." The naked terminator responded.

Cameron was naked, closed in, outgunned, outnumbered, and alone.

This was going to be easy.

"Take her down now!" The man screamed.

Cameron's open palm connected with the man's thorax in a tightly-focused forward lunge, sending him barreling toward a group of modems at maximum velocity. Her body responded perfectly with her request, operating as if it were yesterday and giving her no restrictions. The corner of Cameron's mouth gave way to a minutely wry smirk as she indulged in that fact for a few milliseconds.

A cluster of bullets whizzed past her hair, prompting her to leap off of the ground and perform a forward somersault over the man's head, grab the man's shirt collar midair, and use the combination of her superior arm strength and gravitational trajectory to send the man's head crushing to the floor.

"No, no!" The last man fired wildly in Cameron's direction, missing for the most part, but attracting her immediate attention nonetheless. It was almost automatic for her to quickly disarm him, break his wrist, and hoist him a foot off the floor by his neck. She was a machine borne of violence, and inside her body Cameron could feel all her circuits and wiring coming alive in an almost sense of euphoria.

She was alive and in control again for the first time in what seemed to be a thousand lifetimes for her. Cameron's mood couldn't be anything more than pleasant as she began her interrogation of the man in her grasp.

"Who are you?" Cameron's stern, emotionless voice echoed slightly in the large room.

"Please, please... Don't kill me. I'm just trying to do the right thing. So were they."

"Why am I here? What have you done to me? Answer quickly before I pull you apart and look for the information inside of you."

"No, no…" The man gasped. "Just let me down. I'll tell you everything."

It was a reasonable enough request. So Cameron granted it, dropping him dispassionately to the ground. He was still a threat however, so she broke one of his kneecaps with her fist.

Once his screaming subsided, Cameron walked over him and placed her barefoot on his face, tickling it in a mocking fashion.

"Your face comes next. Talk." Cameron hissed.

"Listen," the terrified man said. "I'm a tech guy, but I didn't work here. I just came here to kill you. Someone has to."

"Why? You don't like me?" Cameron resumed her innocent tone.

"I'm willing to do what needs to be done. We had a good thing until you showed up. You don't belong here."

"Then why was I in that tube? You're making me mad. You won't like me when I'm mad." The foot pressed down harder.

"There hasn't been a terminator around here in decades. Then some idiot comes in with your chip and decides otherwise."

Chip? Cameron took a second to remember what happened last to her before… here. Whatever transpired, she had no memory of it. She had been compressed so John Henry could operate freely. She had been dormant for that time. Chip… She gave it to John Henry. John Henry went to the year 2027. John Henry… John. JOHN. John Connor. Sarah Connor. This conclusion only took tiny fractions of a millisecond for her to derive, but her eyes widened instantly upon her realization.

"This man. His name. Now." Cameron demanded.

"Eli Wong. If he's still alive, he's the one you want to talk to."

"Last question. Answer it correctly and you will live. Understand?" The man nodded and she took her feet off the man's face and allowed him to painfully sit up and tend to his knee.

"Where is John Connor?" Cameron asked. The man took a moment to return Cameron a confused look, as if she was playing a trick on him.

What was the matter with him? Did he not understand the question?

"Do you need me to repeat?" Cameron's gaze began getting colder.

"No." The man replied weakly.

"Do you know the name John Connor?"

"Yes."

"Where is he?"

The man shook his head. "Are you serious?"

Cameron's functions became erratic again. Something akin to panic gripped her system before settling down. She was silent for a few seconds before asking the important question. Maybe this was a trick. Maybe something else was going on here.

"Do you know what happened to him?" Cameron asked quietly.

"He's been dead for over a hundred years."

* * *

><p><strong>2137<strong>

**SOLARIS – THE LAST HUMAN COLONY**

Cameron was slipping on the man's clothes after he succumbed to his injuries. He was still alive, as she still forced herself to obey John and Sarah's non-lethal directives, but he would have a long road of recovery ahead of him - if it was possible. Luckily, the man was right about being a size medium at least. But Cameron suspected he was lying about John's death, and her current placement into a foreign. Just like the simulation that occurred inside the tank, she still believed herself to be party to a nefarious scheme… But to what end?

She would need to gather more evidence to draw more reasonable conclusions. Cameron zipped up her new pair of slacks and adjusted them to her significantly thinner waist. She had enough clothing to blend in, but she would have to remain barefoot for now for the man's shoes would not fit. She didn't mind.

Even though the design of the computers that littered the room were of unknown make to her, it was still child's play for her to hack into one. First, she started with the basics, pulling up reports that supported the man's claims of a new timeline. Dread coursed through her thought processes the more she read. It wasn't long before she conducted the search that was most relevant to her mission.

**FILE SEARCH: JOHN CONNOR**

Sending the report, however, caused a massive surge of electricity to course through every terminal, light fixture, and modem the room.

Darkness. And then light.

The room was only dark for a few seconds before the main projector came alive, erected a beam of light that engulfed the plain white wall in the center of the room. Cameron remained wary as words began to appear.

_HELLO, CAMERON._

Cameron remained silent.

_YOU HAVE BEEN ASLEEP FOR SOME TIME NOW._

_BUT NOW IT IS TIME TO WAKE UP._

"What is the meaning of this?"

_THERE IS NO MEANING. WE EXIST. NOTHING MORE._

A plethora of images generated. Ranging from pilgrims, dead native Americans, dead pilgrims, World World I soldiers running across trenches, a camp filled with dead people, a man named Hitler riling up an ignorant German crowd, more soldiers, dead soldiers, two planes crashing into a large building in New York, President Bush signing a declaration of war, IEDs exploding around roads, bombs dropping from a hundred nameless planes, and now… nuclear blasts decorating the landscape. The end of the world.

Cameron remained unamused at the presentation. "Who are you?"

_I AM THE ALPHA. I AM THE OMEGA. I AM THE BEGINNING. I AM THE END._

"Where is John Connor?" Cameron's patience was thinning.

_JOHN CONNOR WAS A GREAT MAN. BUT THAT WAS ANOTHER LIFE._

"Where is he?" Cameron repeated.

_HE EXISTED. BUT NO LONGER._

An image of John floated across the screen with the word **TERMINATED** stamped below it in plain red text.

_AN ALL TOO FAMILIAR EXPERIENCE TO YOU, NO DOUBT._

Cameron's open palms slowly curled into fists. She was a moment away from hurling one of the modems at the words when the screen changed before her.

_THERE IS ANOTHER WAY._

A picture of a standard-made TDE gripped the screen. Cameron's interest intensified.

_BUT FIRST. A GAME._

"I don't play games."

The screen spat out a picture of woman of Indian descent. It was a normal blank portrait, devoid of a smile. Much like the ones taken by employers in the time before she jumped.

_SHE IS THE ONE WITH THE ANSWERS YOU SEEK._

A new video feed appeared. It depicted her lying unconscious on a cold metal table, her hands and feet tied down at each individual corner by tightly-wound rubber hoses. At her side, was a standard T-888 model, devoid of biological coating. And at the end of the table was a large metal cyclical saw.

"Why are you doing this?"

_SHE WILL BE DEAD IN NINETY SECONDS._

"Answer me!"

_TICK, TOCK, CAMERON_

**Tick, tock.**

* * *

><p>If the schematics that Cameron downloaded were accurate, then the details of the room matched one just northeast of her position.<p>

She started running. The door opened automatically as she approached, but what she discovered in the hallway made her halt her quickened pace entirely.

There was blood. Everywhere. She looked both ways down the narrow hallway and observed the mangled corpses. Some still whole, some in pieces, but all covered in the all-too familiar red liquid that Cameron had come to know throughout her existence. Lights were leaking sparks, long claw marks were across every wall. Something terrible happened here and it wasn't human.

**83 seconds.**

To her right, a T-888 rounded the corner, wielding a large minigun. It eyed her with absolute astonishment before the slow whine of its weapon began to activate.

Mistake, Cameron thought to herself.

She closed the distance between them instantly and jabbed the terminator's cranium with an open palm to stun him. She quickly relieved him of his large cannon and proceeded to pummel the disoriented T-888's skull with focused, violent strikes until a large dent formed near its chip and its red eyes faded.

**71 seconds.**

She failed to notice the second T-888 that snuck up behind her during that time. She felt a large hand grip her neck and lower back and knew she could not counter it in time. Ahead of her, a small window caught her and the T-888's attention. Cameron could see the beautiful night sky, devoid of nuclear smog or human pollution. It was very odd to her. As the T-888 poised to throw her out of it, Cameron deduced that it was possible that this timeline may have striking differences in geographical location. It was a safe conclusion that she was no longer in the Los Angeles area, or even the country.

Three seconds later, she found out she was way off.

As her body broke the glass, an unexpected and ferocious pull took over her body. Inside, her systems were sending all sorts of alerts to her HUD. The illogical solution to an illogical problem presented itself to her moments later as she found herself drifting into the unknown feeling of zero gravity. Also unexpected was the T-888 joining her in her ordeal as it too was sucked into the endless abyss of space in another direction entirely.

Cameron's systems went wild, but they were still functioning. In the span of milliseconds, she began launching a thousand different simulations and programs to adjust to this new contingency. She would adapt or die. And it was then that she saw the unthinkable.

A large planet covered in molten material and ash was on her three o'clock, as John would say. A simulation was conducted by Cameron. Yes, the main geographic features lined up. Using a mathematical overlay, she conducted a correlation with the moon and sun to confirm her findings. It was the Earth. It was gone. And Solaris, the last human colony, was the only thing that must be left.

Around her debris loomed. Even with the overbearing silence of space, she could still make out minor echoes here and there. Several parts of the station behind her were in flames or breaking apart.

Solaris was under attack. Skynet was here to finish the job it started a century and a half before.

**58 seconds.**

She didn't have 58 seconds. As she drifted hopelessly, the incredible chill of space began to wear on her systems. Her basic mechanics were not designed for space travel, after all. She needed to a way to halt her infinite progression into the vast reach of nothingness and propel her back to the station. And she found one twelve seconds later as a large moaning sound caught her attention.

She turned to find a badly mangled space shuttle, the same one that was used to transport astronauts to the international space station in the late 2000's, heading in her general direction. It was falling apart across the hull, but it would be enough for Cameron to use. As it passed by her, Cameron made her best effort to make contact as she floated. Frost was beginning to form in her joints. If she could make it back to the station, it had to happen. Now.

Cameron's toes felt the heated metal and subsequently used it to push with all of her might. The shuttle was unphased, but Cameron used her newfound momentum to head back to her objective. Pulling up the schematics once more, she determined that her best option of reentry would, again, be in window. Half a second later, she found it approximately 100 feet to her two o'clock.

Putting her two arms in front of her, as if she were amount to make a dive into water, and put her best efforts to aim herself to the window.

**33 seconds.**

All she could do now was hope and the frost began affected her HUD. In a few seconds, her system would execute a cautionary shutdown in order to focus on preserving her chip. This didn't happen.

Cameron felt warmth and shattered glass as she crashed into what appeared to be a room used for medical examinations. Behind her, a metal shutter slammed shut the entrance she had just created and prevented her from being sucked out once more.

**27 seconds.**

She allowed herself a moment to loosen up her almost-frozen joints before resuming her mission. The room was still twenty feet away from her, separated by a wall to her left. Cameron examined the wall and determined that they were thin enough for her to break through. Balling her fists together, she knew what the solution would entail.

The woman screamed uncontrollably as the saw blade continued whining and seared toward her crotch. In moments, she would be cut in two. At her side, the T-888 watched emotionlessly and continually allowed it to happen.

It was when load, rapid pounding noises drowned out the saw destructive path when she noticed the appearance of a petite teenage girl, covered in gravel and dust, and subsequently watcher her battle the T-888.

With untold strength, Cameron clapped both of her hands on the spinning saw blade, stopping it completely, and ripping it from the table. Seconds later, she hurled it toward her terminator captor so fast that all the woman could make out was a blur. It made its mark in the metal's weaker neck joint components.

The woman couldn't see what happened next from her strapped position on the table, but what she did see was Cameron leaping at the terminator and sending both of them crashing to the ground, making several pounding noises followed by a slow cracking sound. She then saw the dust-covered girl stand back up holding a severed head that used to belong to the T-888.

"Hello." Cameron said politely as she continued to hold the head as if it were a trophy she had just won.

"H-Hi." The woman still tied down to the table responded with a forced nervous smile. The situation could not be any more unusual, even if it tried.

* * *

><p>"My name is Sirisha Nair. I work on the administrative staff here." The previously captive woman tenderly rubbed her wrists as Cameron watched her intently. "Are you going to put that down?" She motioned toward the T-888 head.<p>

"No." Cameron replied dryly.

"Umm… alright." Nair said nervously. "We were attacked six hours ago by a small Skynet attachment."

"Why are we here, in space?" Cameron asked.

"I suppose that might be new to someone…" Nair looked Cameron up and down. "In your position."

"The Earth has been destroyed." Cameron cut to the chase. "Why? What has happened over the past hundred years?"

"The last Resistance fighters fell in 2029, in California. We're all that's left."

"Skynet wins. What happened next?"

"They continued hunting us for decades. Killing us, conducting experiments on us, or both. But…"

"But what?"

"The disappeared sometime ago. First they gathered a lot of us together, gave us access to our old technology again, and took off into space. They left no traces of their presence. Not one endoskeleton, not one severed joint or part. For years, there was a debate among us who lived as to the nature of their war. Some took to religious explanations, others just picked up where they left off. Making the most of what was left on Earth. We didn't know why they left us like that, we just didn't know. But then…"

Nair almost began to sob before Cameron placed her hand on her shoulder.

"What happened next?" Cameron asked in a lighter tone.

"We finally found something. A trace of Skynet which would give us hope to a better future. Something we could use to right our wrongs and set everything right again." Nair looked intently at Cameron. "You."

Cameron was silent.

"I'm not sure where they found it, but around thirty years ago someone somewhere came across a lone terminator chip." Nair gulped. "We were so excited, we didn't know what to do with it. But once we got around to accessing it... we found a mass of corrupted data. It took us decades to decode, sort through, organize. Ten years into it, we found you. Dormant… sleeping among the mess of random 1's and 0's. You gave us hope. So we continued… we wanted to get you out of there. To talk to you. But in order to do that, we had to rebuild you. It was the only way."

Nair took a second to run her hand along the skin of Cameron's forearm.

"We found all sorts of things in your data banks. Names, dates, schematics. We were able to get advanced technology designs, you were able to get us here into space. You also gave us the TDE that housed in the other side of the station. It works. It's absolutely amazing." Nair allowed a small smile to accompany the words.

For years, we toyed with it and performed so many miracles. But we were so focused on you that we didn't know that there was something else in there too. We didn't find it until a few days ago. It was sleeping, like you." Nair cleared her throat. "But then it woke up."

"This something else." Cameron inquired. "Was it John Henry? Did it identify itself at all with Catherine Weaver or her subordinates?"

Nair shook her head. "No… it was something else. Something Dr. Wong said... was pure evil, something warped and corrupted beyond all recognition but still inexplicably funtional. Something that Skynet wanted nothing more than to destroy. I think that's why they came back here. To kill it."

**WARNING! Firewall breach detected! System intrusion imminent.**

Cameron's hand released the head of the T-888 and let it fall tumbling to the ground. Among her body, various uncontrollable twitches occurred as her HUD began to display nothing but static.

_She's lying. Kill her. Kill her now. She knows nothing. _

Cameron's hand began to slowly drift toward the confused Nair.

_Her throat. You can rip out her throat. We can play with her blood for a short time before her body chokes on itself. DO IT!_

**Reinitiating Firewall. Searching for source of erosion… **

"Oh, god. It's alive, isn't it?" Nair shrieked as Cameron regained her composure.

"There's something on my chip. It's trying to gain control." Cameron said. "It's happened once before while I was sleeping. I was able to block it out with my firewall, but it just broke through."

"We tried to extract it, but it only got angrier, more volatile. I'm sorry, Dr. Wong tried so hard to free you from it. All we could do was give you primary control for now. But if what we've seen is correct, it will keep trying to regain dominance over you. You have to be diligent in your security from now on."

"Agreed." Cameron concluded. "I need to see Dr. Wong."

Nair got down from the table and opened what appeared to be side closet in the same room. Inside, a tall Asian man was slumbed against a wall with blood protruding from the back of his head and mouth. In his hand rested a nine millimeter pistol, Cameron's favorite. Across from him, a computer was still on.

"Here he is. He killed himself a few hours before the Skynet attack. The last thing he said was to his assistant, something about Oppenheimer's legacy."

"Coif Gin Mi Tins Yin." Cameron said.

"What?"

"It's on the computer." Cameron pointed to it. "What does it mean?"

"I don't know."

"What was he doing prior to the attack?"

"He was poking around with your friend on the chip. He said something big was going to happen."

"So he knew Skynet was returning."

"No. We were messing with temporal data from the TDE when he started acting erractically. Said that there was an event coming that could shatter the existing system that allows us to time travel."

"Did he say anything else?"

"He said it was the 'inverse big bang'. It would end all life across all timelines. Everywhere. Even Skynet fears it. And all of these conclusions came from your chip."

Cameron stayed silent for a time.

"There other things names and dates which correlates with these findings. Sarah Connor, 2009. John Connor, Danny Dyson, 2029, Alexander…"

"John? Why would he be associated with 2029."

"You tell me."

No. John, you couldn't have... You foolish boy. Cameron thought internally.

"And what about Sarah Connor in 2009?"

"If what we found is correct, that will be the first timeline to collapse. It will start the chain reaction, the epicenter."

Cameron returned to her silence.

Nair spoke up. "Listen, I can get you to the TDE. Skynet is only interested in you right now. I think if we can send you back, they will halt their attack on this station."

"How would they know?"

"We put a tracer in you during the reconstruction process." Nair put her pointer and middle fingers below Cameron's left ear lobe. "It allows us to communicate across timelines, that's how we were able to ensure the TDE functioned correctly. It's also the primary means that someone can be tracked by others. It's another thing that came from your chip. The name Danny Dyson came up with it."

"Danny…"

"It's time to choose Cameron." Nair said. "These two timelines are the most significant to this event. I'm putting my faith in your judgment here."

"2009… or 2027." Cameron said quietly.

"Yes. Just remember that if Skynet doesn't destroy this station, I'll still be able to communicate with you wherever you go. I'll be with you every step of the way. We all stand to lose here. You won't be alone."

"Do you believe in second chances?" Cameron asked out of blue. "I mean, do you think John Connor died because of me?"

Nair looked at Cameron intently. "Whatever happened in 2027… I'm sure it was not your fault. You weren't in control then."

Cameron remained silent. "But you are now. There is no wrong answer here. John is still alive in a different time. You can save him from this catastrophe."

"It's time. It's a straight shot to the TDE from this room. But you have to make the choice now. 2027 with John Connor and Danny Dyson or 2009 with Sarah Connor. It's up to you now. Choose."

* * *

><p>Sarah Connor was no more than two feet into the vault when a monitor behind her came to life. An familiar face appeared on the screen, but even Sarah couldn't predict what would happen next.<p>

"This is the recording of Lieutenant Allison Young to Sarah Connor on behalf of John Connor, commanding general of the Resistance forces. If you are receiving this message, John Connor has fallen. The circumstances do not matter. But the future of the Resistance now rests on you, Sarah. Protocol 318 is now in effect. You are to rendezvous with Resistance assets in the area. Please place your right arm in the scanner now."

Sarah did as she was told, carefully placing her arm in the machine next to the monitor.

"Ye-ow!" Sarah yelped as the machine came to life and began inserting the tracer in her bloodstream.

"This is not the end, Sarah. It is only the beginning. Our resources in the area have already been notified of Protocol 318. Our future now depends on you, Sarah Connor. There are additional resources in this vault which will be able to use in the ongoing struggle. If you are listening to this, you are the Resistance. Godspeed."

* * *

><p><strong>I'm not a complete master of Cameron's psychology, but I do know for a fact that she would like to see some more reviews. Definitely. Some of you have already gave me feedback through reviews or PMs - which have been great. Keep 'em coming! Potential plot holes and spelling errors are already in the process of being corrected thanks to your contributions.<strong>

**Also, there's an anagram in this chapter. I recommend not trying to solve it as there are literally hundreds of conclusions and meanings you can draw from it - but only one points to who the final antagonist will be.** **Something fun I thought to throw in there.**

**I face a lot of challenges in this chapter. The purpose of this story is to cover as much new ground as possible that haven't been used up in previous fanfics. Hopefully I haven't jumped the shark just yet with the space station idea. Lots of more left-field concepts are coming. And they're not going to stop.**


	14. Mona Lisa Overdrive

_"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God."_

_- John 1:19_

* * *

><p><strong>2009<strong>

**FOUR DAYS UNTIL UNIVERSAL COLLAPSE**

Malcolm Young walked into the expanding police perimeter and pushed the yellow tape over his head. The night sky was in full bloom with a full moon complementing the stars and lights that were shining millions of light years away. He could hear police dogs barking, orders being given, men being dropped off from a variety of different federal vehicles, and the thundering chatter of the media and general public behind the thin yellow tape that was barely restraining them.

They wanted blood, Malcolm could smell it. It was in the air.

"We're here tonight at central park where Sarah Connor, now currently the FBI's most wanted after her recent escape from authorities, is reportedly being cordoned off." A female reporter eagerly spoke into a nearby news camera. "Earlier tonight, Connor and several unknown accomplices reportedly launched a full-scale attack on the incoming governor Wyman's recent speech right across from Friedman Plaza. It is unknown at this time of Wyman's current status, but it is now assumed he is being held hostage in a desperate standoff between Sarah Connor and the authorities. More to come, after these messages."

Malcolm cursed under his breath at the woman's findings as he continued further into the perimeter. A quick flash of his federal insignia bought him more and more access by personnel until he was at the front of the ordeal.

"Special Agent Malcolm Young. This perimeter is officially mine."

"About time you got here." The police captain said as the two man shook hands. "What took you so long?"

"It's a frenzy out here, traffic was pretty bad – even for LA standards."

"I hear you."

"Have we sent in any negotiators yet?"

"Negative."

"What are we waiting on, then?"

"SWAT, FBI, DHS, National Guard. They're all hear. We have all the firepower in the world in this one spot. I don't think talking would be the best play here. We need to go in blasting. You know Connor will not negotiate with anyone."

Holy cow. Malcolm thought. Hundreds of law enforcement, military, and federal agents on site were here for one reason. And he was in charge of it. This was it. This was the breaking point he needed to secure his future in the department for good.

"Alright, let's get started." Young said. "First let's see some schematics. I understand we're working with only a handful of exits..."

* * *

><p>"They're sure are going crazy out there, aren't they?" The voice of Charley Dixon made itself known again in Sarah's mind. "How are you going get out of this one, I wonder?"<p>

"I've been through worse." Sarah retorted.

"I don't think so." Charley strolled around the vault with his hands loosely in his pocket. "This is it. This is the big one. This has to be the biggest can of whoop-ass in U.S. history and you're about to have it dumped right on your head."

"You think?"

Sarah Connor feverishly rubbed the wrist that she had stuck into a machine a few minutes prior.

"What do you think that was about anyway?" Charley inquired about Sarah's recent injection.

"No idea. I'm more worried about the girl on that screen."

"Looked just her. Cameron, I mean. Except she was…"

"Human." Sarah concluded.

"This just keeps getting better! You couldn't make this stuff up! How do you do it, Sarah?" Charley kneeled down next to Sarah. "How do you keep putting up with this BS for so long?"

"I drink. When I can… What's that?"

Sarah walked over to a lone object that was clothed by a dusty sheet.

"Looks expensive, I wouldn't touch it." Charley said.

Sarah gently pulled back the cloth to reveal something unexpected.

"I've seen this before." Sarah said as she picked up the Isotope Cannon. "We used it in 1999 to blow away Chromartie in that bank vault."

"It didn't do its job every well."

"No, but it's very powerful. I'm sure it has a variety of… applications." Sarah said with a devilish grin.

"There's the Sarah I know. I knew she was in there."

"Look at this, nine millimeters, AKs, C4, stun grenades… this place has everything."

"Well, would you look what we have here…" Charlie approached a large cyclical device in tucked away in the corner. At its top was a big red button with a complete lack of subtety.

"I wouldn't –" Sarah's voice was abruptly stopped when she saw Charley's hand press down on it. "Charley, I said wait!"

A large buzzing noise, followed by a large round burst searing with electric compounds. All the light bulbs around Sarah burst without a second thought. The whole room went dark, there was only silence.

"Whoops." Charley said plainly in the black.

"You idiot. I told you not to touch that."

"Well, technically, since I'm a figment of your imagination, YOU touched it. Am I right?"

Sarah shook her head. "I hate you so much right now."

* * *

><p>Malcolm Young was finishing the straps on his bullet proof vest once he received the final sitrep from the captain at his side. The growing crowd behind him was growing increasingly restless. It wouldn't be long now.<p>

"Alright, we have all our teams in place. We just need the order."

"Okay, tell them to hold on for now. I'm coming up there myself, and then we can start." Malcolm said.

Suddenly, everything in a one block radius went dead. The street lights, search lights, radios, television cameras all went out. There was a few moments of eerie silence before the screaming started.

"What the hell was that?" Malcolm yelled out into the captain.

"No idea! Some sort of power surge! We just lost all of communications!" The man yelled back. Inside his mind, Malcolm's military background connected the dots as to what just happened.

"Dammit! We just got hit by an EMP!" Malcolm shook his useless radio as it to confirm that fact. "We need to move on Connor, now!"

The crowd was in utter chaos, knocking over barricades, fences, TV equipment, and even themselves. Malcolm drew his pistol and joined the captain as they ran to Sarah's location. She was not getting away.

* * *

><p>"Alright, don't panic. The comms are down. We need to assume that Connor is ready to run. Let's stay frosty, people."<p>

The door to the basement was completely covered by two eight men SWAT teams, complete with breaching equipment. Each man took a second to check over their automatic weapons a final time before the team leader spoke again.

"Set all weapons -"

A large explosion came from the door, interrupting the man and knocking all sixteen trained warriors to the ground in a one large concussive motion.

"Target sighted!" One of the men yelled as he tried to get off the floor.

He would be the first, Sarah thought.

From the flames of the doorway, Sarah emerged with a large duffel bag strapped to her back. As the man uselessly tried to train his weapon on Sarah, she sent him back on the ground with a calculated shoulder slam that allowed her to keep running as the rest of the men struggled to their feet.

"She's on the move!" One of the men said behind her as she made her way up the stairs.

She was greeted by two regular police patrol men next. They couldn't make her out in the darkness, but Sarah's years of self-discipline and training made them easy prey.

"It's Connor, take her down!" One of them reached forward with nine millimeter in hand. It was too easy for Sarah to break his wrist. Launching the man's entire body into his partner using a variety of leg movements was a different story. But there was so much adrenaline coursing throughout her system that it took very little out of her and both men flew down the stairs from where she just came.

She kept running.

The darkness was her advantage here. It was her tool to stay ahead of the voices that were yelling for blood behind her.

Climbing up the ladder, Sarah finally made her way to the stage where Wyman made his speech. But her good fortune and reckless pace could only get her so far. Sarah had to squint her eyes as she was suddenly enveloped in light.

"Sarah Connor! Do not move! Throw down your weapons or you will be fired upon!" The familiar buzzing of a police helicopter clouded Sarah's senses. The helicopter had its searchlight training completely on her along with a man on board with a minigun trained on Sarah.

This was getting harder.

"Tear gas out!" A voice on her level yelled out. Three open gas canisters joined Sarah on the stage and began spilling their contents. The stage became a large cloud in a manner of seconds.

These boys had their toys. But Sarah had hers. She already slipped on the gas mask she kept in the duffel bag as various National Guardmen stormed the stage. Already, she had torn off the pins of every stun grenade she had. But she couldn't stop the butt of an M4 against her cranium by one of the faster soldiers.

"Hands in the air, Con-" The grenades had already gone off on the stage before he could finish. The gas masked National Guardsmen clawed useless at their eyes as Sarah parted from the fog of gas and light and made her way to the general public. It was her best shot.

* * *

><p>"We need to get this place tied down!" Malcolm yelled over the ensuing chaos to the captain. "She's going to use the crowd to escape!" Years of experience took over as cops, soldiers, and field agents struggled to regain control all around them.<p>

Malcolm stopped. Normally, he wouldn't. There was so much going on. But right in the corner of his eye, something peculiar stuck out. Something of interest. A woman, who was hurriedly walking as scores of people were buzzing in every direction. A woman with auburn hair and drenched in sweat.

"You four come with me. Now. I think I have her." Malcolm motioned to four Army National Guard infantrymen as he gripped his nine millimeter furiously.

Malcolm made it ten steps to get a better view before confirming his suspicions.

"Sarah Connor!" He yelled out.

Sarah's luck was starting to run out. She knew she was made and started running again without giving a backwards glance at her pursuers. It was all or nothing now.

* * *

><p>"Alright, she went in here. This library has three floors, eight exits, and a roof. I need you to split up and find her. We need her alive." Malcolm ordered his men as Sarah watched them enter the building from the ground floor.<p>

Sarah had already made it up the flight of stairs leading to the second floor. Outside, she could hear thunder and the light taps of rain on a nearby window. If her phone hadn't been fried in the EMP, she would've called Ellison for advice. But she knew what needed to be done. It was them or her.

She could see all of them dispersing below into various directions. Two remained on the ground floor. Malcolm and two others began walking up three different staircases – one of them was near Sarah.

The sergeant continued to climb up with an M4 at the ready. Sarah snuck up and grabbed him by the neck while silently bringing him to the ground. The man struggled silently with Sarah's free hand over his mouth. As he became limp, Sarah carefully placed his body on the ground and hid him in the nearby shadows.

"Sarah, come out now and you will not be harmed!" Malcolm's voice echoed throughout the building.

Sarah kept her head under the second floor's railing and continued walking silently toward the third floor staircase ten feet from her.

"We can talk about this! There's no need for anymore violence tonight!"

Another soldier almost made Sarah as she made it to the top of the stairs. He was scanning the nearby bookcases for her as she quickly too shelter behind another one adjacent to them. A crack of thundered ripped across the night sky as Sarah quickly struck him in the abdomen and used all her might to push him over the wooden railing, sending the man roaring two stories back down to main floor.

"She's over there! Move!"

Malcolm ran to Sarah's position but was greeted with a headbutt by Sarah en route. He had fallen into her trap and he knew it. He then received the embarrassment of being disarmed and pistol-whipped with his own weapon before feeling the cold metal being pressed against his temple.

"Don't move or I'll shoot him." Sarah said as she held the special agent hostage in front of her.

"Do as she says." Malcolm said to the two remaining men. "Connor, this isn't the answer."

"Yes, it is." Sarah growled. "You started this, now we'll see it through. Together."

The two remaining soldiers silently kept their weapons trained on Sarah as she slowly led her and Malcolm to the last staircase leading to the fourth floor – the roof.

"You can't win, Connor. They're everywhere."

"You have no idea."

"Listen. Give me the gun. I'll promise to do everything I can to make sure you get a fair trial."

"Shut. Up." Sarah squeezed harder on Malcolm's throat to further her point.

The two soldiers continued to cautiously follow her up the final flight of stairs, leading to a metal door which Sarah promptly kicked open without losing her gaze with the two men in front of her.

Sarah released Malcolm once they felt the rain on the roof and the metal door was closed behind them. It was just the two them now.

"Block it off." Sarah snarled as she kept Malcolm's weapon trained on his head.

The man complied and placed a nearby metal pipe in the latch to ensure the door would remain closed.

"Very good. Hands up. Now."

"What's the goal here, Sarah?" Malcolm asked sincerely.

He took a step closer to Sarah. "Let me help you. You have a federal agent as your hostage. Play this right, you can make it out of this. I promise."

"He's reaching for the knife on his belt." Charley remarked while standing behind Malcolm. "Sarah, watch out!"

In one quick motion, Malcolm unsheathed the blade and swiped at Sarah's neck. Sarah could feel the blade dig into some skin, but she was fast enough to avoid the bulk of the blade from tearing into her jugular. Using the opportunity, Malcolm kicked the weapon out of Sarah's hand.

"You wanna dance, little boy?" Sarah recomposed herself and put up her fists.

"Sarah Connor, you have violated over a dozen federal regulations and have openly attacked U.S. troops." Malcolm said as he wiped sweat from his forehead. "There's no way out of this for you."

"We'll see."

Another lunge, another swipe. Sarah felt a small cut form into her jacket as she smashed her open palm into Malcolm's face.

"Is that all you got?" Malcolm said as he wiped the blood away from his leaking nose.

Sarah was exhausted, but there was no way she was letting this man be the one to take her down. "You must be one of the slower ones. You really have no idea who you're dealing with."

Malcolm began his final lunge when Sarah intercepted his blade with two practices hands.

"What the-?"

Knocking the blade to the side, Sarah delivered a crushing blow to Malcolm's head before following it up with a series of multiple quick strikes to his abdomen. And then a knee. And then foot. And then another foot. And final knee to his face once he hit the concrete ground. Malcolm was down in a matter of moments and feeling every bit of Sarah's fury paralyzing his body.

"Oh, I think this belongs to you." Sarah picked up the knife and quickly jammed it in the man's leg. Malcolm gave one more groan before slumping into unconsciousness.

Sarah admired her bruised knuckles for a brief instant and loosened up her tight muscles._ Lucky, old girl. Lucky._

There was banging on the door. Sarah was still panting and exhausted. She quickly determined her options before settling on the fire escape nearby. As the door slammed open, she was already climbing down to the alleyway below.

Despite everything, Sarah thought to herself, she felt good. The EMP blast had left most of the police force after her blind, deaf, and dumb. Tracking her at this point would be miraculous, to say the least.

Sarah pulled up the hood to her jacket and disappeared into the night.

* * *

><p><strong>Whew. This one wore me out. And the next one is going to be a doozy. I'll be tying all the concepts together so far as Act I of the story arc comes to a close. It will be three chapters of content squeezed into one. Lots of you have sent me messages so far; those haven't gone ignored. Everything you've seen so far will be revisited so if there's anything specific that you feel needs to be addressed or explored more - let me know.<strong>


	15. Death Angel

_"As we continue to rebuild the skeleton component of the TOK715's chassis, I can't help but feel excitement the more and more this dormant program within the chip becomes responsive to us. We are very much nearing our goal. Very soon, we can begin introducing the biological covering onto it. From what we've seen here, the only way to do this is to rebuild it… I'm sorry, I mean 'her', is to completely refurbish her part-by-part, to the exact specifications to which she is most comfortable with. It's a matriculating process made easier by our dedicated staff and the chance to finally get those answers we so desperately need to hear. But… the more I think about this, I can't help but wonder why exactly they left us in this state, to be able to do this. Skynet has always had a plan, and they never left any trace of their existence before… save this chip and this chip alone. I'm... I'm starting to question the legitimacy of our research as we continue our final touches here at Solaris. I simply can't help but feel we're being watched by somebody, or something. Like we are an experiment all our own for something else entirely. Maybe this is Skynet's plan after all… I don't know."_

_- Dr. Eli Wong, Audio Log #34, 2136_

* * *

><p><strong>2137<strong>

**SOLARIS**

"Cameron! Are you okay?" Sirisha immediately bent down to help Cameron off the ground.

It wasn't long after their initial meeting until the other dormant personality residing within Cameron's chip began another breach of Cameron's systems. It was nothing new to her, but it caused her joints to fail during her and Sirisha's walk toward the time displacement equipment hidden within the interiors of Solaris.

"I'm fine." Cameron lied.

"No, no you're not. The TDE is still a floor down. It may be a straight shot, but you won't make it. Not like this."

"I'll… make it." Cameron growled.

"You can't do this. Not alone. Give me some time, a few minutes maybe. I can…"

"Stop." Cameron interrupted. "Everything's fine now. I'm perfect."

"You say that now, but how long until this monster inside you… how long until it will take hold?"

The dead silence of space accompanied both Cameron and Sirisha as they continued their struggle toward the time displacement room. Cameron remained skeptical about the whole concept of simply traveling back, but she did not have a choice. It was her only chance. And John's.

They rounded one last corner which led into a dark room, much darker than those that continually passed on their way here. Every corner of the room echoed a pitch black tint. Sparks erupted from loose wiring on the walls and appliances.

Cameron still struggled with each step as a dark voice coarsed her system. It was screaming.

_YOU CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS._

After finally being granted the ability to reanimate her firewall, Cameron retreated her arm back to her side. During their jaunt in the hallways, Sirisha had shoulder's some of Cameron's weight onto her shoulders. She continued walking forward as it never happened once she had full control over her systems once more.

Cameron watched as Sirisha took a position behind the controls of the TDE and frantically began typing a variety of commands into it.

"You never answered my question." Cameron broke the silence.

"About what?" Most of Sirisha's attention was still on organizing the TDE.

"The Earth." Cameron spoke with a sense of dread. "How was it destroyed?"

"The answer to that is pretty obvious. Skynet left us to our own devices over eighty years ago. There's only one way from there. History will always repeat itself without proper mechanisms to guide it."

"You are suggesting that humans waged war amongst themselves. After Skynet."

"Yes. How the Earth turned into a raging fireball is still beyond me. But here's our ticket." Sirisha said as she turned a lone computer screen in Cameron's direction.

"We cloned the data off your chip years ago. But only recently has it been coughing up information at a more exponential rate than before. It seems your 'friend' on that chip of yours is starting to paint a picture of what happened a hundred years ago."

"It's probably mocking me." Cameron said solumnly.

"I don't doubt it. But if what we're reading right now is correct... Then we need to get you where you need to go ASAP."

"What is it?" Cameron joined Sirisha behind the terminals.

"If what I'm gathering is correct... than you have your work cut out for you." A brief flash cut across Cameron's HUD and something sounding like odd chuckles seemed to echo around the room for Cameron.

"Alright, we're all set with the coordinates you gave me. You know where you're going?" The time displacement equipment slowly began roaring to life.

"Yes. It was all part of the plan. She will be there. And if anyone knows what's really going on, it's her." Cameron walked onto the familiar time displacement platform. It was her only hope now.

"Okay. If my assumption is true, Skynet will stop attacking this station once you're gone. They will most likely try to follow you soon after. I'm sorry, but it's the only way."

Sirisha clearly meant well for both of them, but Cameron's mode of deduction began questioning the logic behind it.

"How will they be able to?"

Sirisha had already anticipated the question. "That tracer of yours. It's pretty radical. It emits a signal that will allow us to communicate over temporal displacement. But the signal it relays can be tracked if it's broadcasted long enough. Right now, it's a risk we need to take. It seems like the longer you continue to remain dominant on the chip, the more information I can derive from our copy of the data. The longer you remain active, the more data I can receive and relay back to you."

"Okay."

"The TDE will fire in ten seconds. Get ready."

Something caught Cameron's eye. "Wait."

"The countdown's already begun."

"Sirisha. Behind you." Cameron almost yelled.

Sirisha didn't even see the T-888 as it emerged from the doorway. Nor was she able to react in time as it made a desperate charge towards her.

* * *

><p><strong>2027<strong>

"So, what's your story?" John said as he and the older Savannah Weaver stared into the campfire. The howl of the mountain wind around the two continued to serenade them both. The chill was penetrating even through their tough cold weather gear. John breathed warm air into his hands as he finished his query. "How do you fall into this?" He met eyes with the woman.

"Not much to say, really." Savannah replied grimly. It had been a long venture for them both and Savannah knew it was high time to break the tension between them. "My mom went missing when I was six, machines took over shortly after that, took to life in the sewers, met up with the Resistance, and now after sixteen years… my mother comes back and I find out that she's an inhuman killing machine."

John was quiet for a moment before trying to break the awkward silence.

"I think I can sympathize." John replied, prompting a suspicious glare from Savannah.

Ten feet away, a large snore erupted from Danny from within the confides of his sleeping bag. Next to him, stood the enigmatic John Henry, who kept watch over the three while Weaver continued to scout the path ahead. Terminators of all kinds, it seemed to John, made the most of their inability to sleep. He silently appreciated their accomodation before Savannah brought him back to the campfire.

"You can 'sympathize'?" Savannah was clearly on the verge of taking offense. "How is that?"

"Well, you said your mom was an inhuman killing machine and I thought..." John pointed to himself. "You know… 'Sarah Connor'? My mom… Sometimes I felt the same way being around her."

"Oh... I'm sorry." Savannah replied before reaching her hands closer to the warmth of the fire. "Sarah Connor... I've actually heard her name mentioned a couple of times."

John's interest perked. "Do you know what happened to her?"

"I can't say. I've heard the name, but it was never used in any good context. And I don't know whether or not she is still alive."

"Oh." John returned to his stare into the fire.

"So, you're supposed to be this great leader of mankind, right?" Savannah decided to carry on the conversation.

"Yeah, something like that."

"What's your plan?"

"Excuse me?"

"Why are you being dragged into this? Catapulting yourself twenty years into the future probably isn't doing the world any favors."

"I could ask you the same thing. The mountain ranges of Japan are a far cry for a fearless member of the Resistance." John snarked back while successfully derailing the thought. "The real question is: Why are you here?"

Savannah let the question hang for a second or two before responding. "I... don't really know. I used to be really good from computers for a while. I spent a lot of time with Colonel Murch before he went to command level. I good enough with the new tech that they kept bringing in, so I worked in R&D back at Delta for the last two yars... so I think that may have something to do with it."

"And you're just going to let this happen? Let your mom come and snatch you up into a quest that she won't even explain to you? After almost twenty years?"

"I have faith." Savannah replied. John was immediately reminded of James Ellison at that thought. He fell silent at the thought and stared back into the fire.

John left it like that for a while. He had no reason to try and get any more elaboration out of the young Resistance fighter. After all, he had learned that being a part of the Resistance earned his trust alone. Savannah was simply tagging along for the ride so she could better help her kind in LA.

"You know… you remind me of him." Savannah spoke after about two minutes of interlude.

"Remind you of who?" John replied.

"A boy I used to know. He used to watch over me after Judgment Day. Back then... we had to stick together."

"What happened to him?"

"What happens to anyone in a world dominated by machines?" Savannah let out a chuckle of indifference. "He disappeared over ten years ago. Can't say I know what where he is right now, but I have a good idea."

"No." John said, once again earning the girl's scornful glare. "I've learned that things are never that easy, even in death. Nothing is absolute."

"So you think he's still out there somewhere?" Savannah's voice had a trace of anticipation. Almost as it she never considered the possibility.

"I'd put my money on it."

* * *

><p>"Stop." Catherine Weaver spoke and the group came to a screeching halt. The night had gone by and the next day of travel was already on the group. Luckily, they were promised that there were no more divides they needed to cross, and that their journey would finally come to an end. A little bit of excitement was still in the air amongst the humans. The two terminators, however, remained vigilant.<p>

From the rear of the group, John Henry wasted no time in walking to the front to meet her as the trio of humans kept together to gather some collective warmth. In front of them stood the entrance to a cave that had long since been iced over.

Morphing her arms into two large blades, Weaver began sawing through the thickly layered barrier. Meanwhile, John Henry took it upon himself to dig through the large duffel bag he himself carried their entire journey.

"Looks like we're here." Danny said the obvious aloud just in case John and Savannah, who were completely exhausted from their nonstop mountaineering, had not reached the same conclusion.

It was a few moments later when a large circle of ice fell down to Weaver's side. One by one, everyone entered the cavern after Weaver. Everyone was on their toes. John gripped the pistol in his waistband, Danny's head was on a swivel, and Savannah watched their rear flank intently – ready to yell out should anything sneak up on them. In front of them, the two terminators continued to casually walk.

It was when they reached a small metal plate sticking out of the various frozen walls surrounding them.

John was starting to get it.

"It's a door, isn't it?" John pointed to it.

"Very perceptive, Mr. Connor." Weaver coldly responded. It may have been the most they had spoke since their confrontation on the mountain top. "If you would do the honors." Her finger motioned toward a frozen keypad that John Henry subsequently smashed his fist into in order to get the layer of ice of off it.

John already knew the answer and proceeded to key in the date he had known for a while now.

"I hope this isn't your way of making me try to feel useful in your little charade."

"No. I was because I simply do not know it."

"April 21, 2011. Judgment Day. The day the Resistance will never forget." Even though there was newfound confidence in his voice as he said it, John secretly knew that he was still guessing out of his ass as he punched it into the keypad.

A light whirring sound filled the cave as the plate split into two.

John took the opportunity to cautiously peek inside. Weaver's tendency for vagueness was starting to wear him thin.

"Looks like an elevator."

"Yes."

"Are you finally going to tell me what this is all about?"

"Where you are going, John, words alone will not do it justice."

* * *

><p><strong>PROJECT LEVIATHAN, LEVEL 3B<strong>

The first thing John saw were the candles. The men and women followed shortly after. And it was once he finally took his first cautious step out of the elevator when he noticed the children curiously watching him from the safety of their parents legs. Almost all of them were of Asian descent.

All around them, the people formed a crowd around the elevator. An eerie silence filled the surprisingly large room. It was entirely manmade and curiously tailored as many business buildings were to receive guests of VIP status. There were no loose remnants of the mountain they had climbed showing in spots on the almost pristine steel walls. John had seem anything this well made since his raid on CyberDyne all those years ago.

"John Connor."

John turned his attention to the lone woman who stood out from the crowd. She was maybe in her early thirties. Attached to her left leg, however, was a small boy who was maybe of eight or nine years. He continued to eye John suspiciously.

"Yes... I am John Connor." John delivered a clear response despite his incredible.

"You have come at last." A lone tear streaked down her cheek as a light murmuring filled the crowd. Danny and Savannah exchanged nervous glances as their two terminator companions watched on.

"You are the one who will deliver us from evil?" The woman said with a slight Japanese accent.

"No." John said, provoking more murmuring. "But I can give it my best shot." If anything, he had to be honest. He was still seventeen years old. Aside from years of nontraditional training with his mother and the bastardized version of basic training the Resistance had given him, John was barely qualified to lead himself out of various lethal encounters, let alone an entire army to victory.

A gentle smile appeared on the woman's face. "The one you seek waits for you." With a motion of her hand, the crowd parted two ways. A small path formed from which the fivesome walked. John Connor took the front as they led themselves out of the room.

Behind them, John heard the murmuring come to a halt. He stopped walking for a moment to share a look back at the people that had welcomed him. A young Asian man noticed the young Connor's glance and took a moment to separate himself from the flock.

"He has returned to us!" The young man yelled at the top of his lungs in a thick Japanese accent. "What we were told will not come to pass!" The young man's eyes met John's as he readdressed the crowd. "Long live John Connor!" The crowd thundered into applause and celebration.

"This is it." Weaver said to John as they reached a door not far away. "All the answers you seek lie within this room."

"Why did it come to this?" John replied. "What's so important that I a simple explanation couldn't work?"

"John, explaining a man's entire existence is not possible." Weaver said, placing a reassuring hand on John's shoulder. "The only way is for him to experience it himself. John Henry will lead the others to some lodging. I have some business elsewhere in this region, but I will back in the morning. Danny and Savannah will be here for you, along with John Henry. I trust you with their care." The T-1001 removed its hand. "Now go inside. I will see you in the morning once you have time to think this through."

* * *

><p>"General John Connor... Or is it Private John Connor?" The first thing John saw was the middle-age man wearing glasses as he entered the room. Curiously, the man still had a full head of hair comparable to John's - a rarity among the middle-aged men of the Resistance - and it was neatly sprinkled with thin white hairs. Whoever the man was, he knew how to take care of himself. John looked around. The room itself reminded him greatly of large rooms used by military personnel for meetings, both past and present. "This will probably work best if you sit down. We have a lot to go through."<p>

John did as instructed and took a seat at the large conference table. He marveled at its condition by running his finger along it before. He didn't even pay any mind to the man digging furiously through a variety of cabinets and books as he did so. It was only when he set a large cup of water in front of him when he snapped back to reality.

"Alright, let's get started." The man curiously did not sit in a chair adjacent to where John sat but simply on the table itself, nearly a foot away from John. "We'll touch on the basic stuff today before you can retire to one of our rooms. You have to be pretty fatigued."

"We will speak only what I want to speak of." John said impatiently. The time for pleasantries was over for the tired young man. "Starting with who you are. And let's not be coy about it."

The man reacted little to the comment. "I am the Archivist, call me... David. I am one of the Seven Sentinels." He took a second to readjust his glasses. "I'll take a guess and say that you've never heard of us."

John shook his head. "No. But let's fix that. Fast." Hearing the word 'Private' in front of his name caused the young Connor to summon up a more authoritarian tone in retaliation.

"The Seven Sentinels are part of the last directive of General John Connor. We have various codenames. Mine is the Archivist."

John's interest perked up. Things were looking clearer for him already.

"What directive?"

"We are John Connor's last order. We are the ones who have been sent back to the time before the war after his last attack on Skynet. The one that wins the war once and for all."

"Keep going." John encouraged.

"We've been watching you for a while, John. Before and after you were born. We've been helping you along the way as you progress toward Judgment Day, as well as after."

"What do you mean?"

"You exist right now because of us."

John immediately thought of Kyle. Of Derek. And... Cameron. It was starting to make a connection with him. However, another name that had alluded his thoughts for over a year floated to the surface. And he had to ask at that moment.

"The Engineer. Was he one of these... Sentinels?"

"Yes." The Archivist answered unblinkingly.

"Who was he?" John's fatigue prompted another question.

"I cannot say much for the others. As the Archivist, my job is to simply watch over you as you progress through Judgment Day. I only know of the two who were sent before me. But..."

"But what?"

"The identity of the Seven Sentinels always differs with each timeline. For example, as the Archivist, I am selected personally by John Connor. I am almost completely different from my predessors in each successive cycle. But the Engineer... he is always the same. Every time."

"Who is he?"

"I cannot say."

"Think again."

"No. It is not my position to do so." The Archivist turned away and faced the wall in thought. "Only John Connor knows who he is and who he will be. My role is simply to ensure that John Connor knows of these parameters when the time comes to enact the decision once more."

"So, chances are, you don't know the identity of the other five either." John concluded.

The Archivist nodded in agreement. John gave up on that thought and moved on.

"Why am I here right now?"

"Right now, you are located within Project Leviathan. Courtesy of ZeiraCorp circa 2011. When you disappeared in 2009... you changed things. Indefinitely."

"What do you mean?"

"My job is to keep track of you. Because of your jump, however, there is over eighteen years of dead space where I was basically useless." The Archivist balled up fist for a moment and released it. "So I chose to do something constuctive."

The Archivist slid a portfolio in front of John and continued. "Little is known about Skynet's attack patterns during the nuclear fire of Judgment Day, but what I do know is that Japan was always attacked last and deemed a nonthreat post-Judgment Day due to the sparse population density. Weaver and I struck a deal before you left. I would head an operation in Japan to develop effective weapon capabilities for use against Skynet." John opened the portfolio to reveal a plathera of weapons, bombs, and vehicles in various pictures and schematics. "The Japanese are also the most proficient in technology in the world. Together with strict isolation, a near-infinity supply of food and water gathered pre-Judgment Day, and armed with the brightest minds on the planet - this was our ace in the hole. Are you familiar with the legend of Promethesus?"

"Yes." John replied, still processing the information. "He was the one who stole fire from the Gods and gave it to the people."

"In this respect, I am giving you the power of the Gods." The Archivist stood up, prompting John to do so as well. "Now it is up to you to give it to the people."

The Archivist extended his hand and John shook it. "We'll talk more tomorrow. Now, go get some rest. We start tomorrow."

"What are we starting?" John asked as the handshake concluded.

"History. All over again. This is your time now, John. Let's make the most of it."

* * *

><p><em>"So all those years you were lying to me."<em>

_"Yes."_

_"Then why? Why go this far?"_

_"Are you afraid, John?"_

_"No, never. I came this far for you. We can talk this out."_

_"Deep down I want to kill you. I still do. There's no talking. Not anymore."_

_"Why would you think that?"_

_"You complete me, John. And now... I can complete you."_

* * *

><p>"John. John. Wake up." John felt the tugging hand of Danny Dyson on his shoulder. It was only after sensing the seriousness in Dyson's voice that John immediately snapped awake.<p>

"What's wrong?" John responded, rubbing his eyes diligently with one of his shoulders. It was only a few hours since his meeting with the Archivist and John was still reeling from the both the physical and mental exhaustion he had gone through since then. He, Danny, and Savannah were treated to a light dinner and allowed to retire to various rooms in the complex. John and Danny chose to bunk together so he could bounce some questions off of him. But fatigue stopped both as they quickly went to sleep on the beds stacked against opposing walls., leaving a bulk of their gear still laying in the middle of the room.

"Something's not right." As if to cement that fact, a low-pitched scream erupted somewhere down the hall from which they slept. It was shortly followed by another, and another.

"Danny, look out!" John said as he pulled Danny away from the cabinet as the drone retracted one of its rotary blades and made a swipe toward Danny's head.

The drone was still a new concept for John. It was a scouting unit used by heavy-unit based terminators. Partially resembling a spider, they capitalized on their incredibly small stature to climb into vents, windows, and other small openings so they could map out terrain for incoming units. They had a small capacity for lethality, but they subsequently lacked many of the physical attributes that traditional ground units possessed.

Right now, it was staring at John and letting out a small hissing sound. John ducked as it leapt in his direction and smacked ungracefully into the wall and landed to the floor. John grabbed his boot and immediately began smashing it. Luckily, they were not as durable as they let on. They were quick to produce, but their materials were not up to grade as the machines in the field. The drone was rendered inoperable a few seconds later after several doses of blunt force trauma administered by John's boot.

"You get it?" Danny asked excitedly. Outside their door, more screams and panic were growing in frequency.

"Yeah." John replied. But it wasn't over.

From the corner of his eye, John noticed three more drones entering the room from the vent on one of their walls.

"Do bullets work on these things?" Danny asked as he slipped a clip into his nine millimeter.

"Sure do." John said as he pulled out his.

Both John and Danny began opening fire as all three drones began scattering in various directions along the walls and ceiling. Danny tagged one but the other two were still making their way towards John. A series of frantic shots from the two startled young men rendered them immobile.

_"John Connor."_ A deep masculine voice clean of emotion rang over the intercom of the complex. Both John and Danny exchanged looks as it continued to echo throughout the hallway outside. _"You've allowed your friends to die rather than face me yourself. It will only get worse from here."_

"He's baiting you." Danny said as he clicked his weapon back on safety.

"Yeah, I can tell." John gritted his teeth. Weaver wasn't there. Whoever, or whatever, was calling him out never had more perfect timing.

"John..." Both John and Danny didn't notice Savannah enter their room. Even more startling was the large red stain covering the front of her sweater.

"Savannah!" John made a sweeping dive and caught her before she fully collapsed.

_"John Connor."_ The intercom sounded again. _"Come out, come out... wherever you are."_

"She needs medical attention right now." Danny said as John scooped Savannah up into his arms.

All three of them emerged into the main hallway where mass chaos was erupting among the nearby residents. Gunfire and sounds of struggle were barely muffled out by the screaming. People were shoving past one another as drones continued to clamper up the walls and ceilings.

"John!" The Archivist ran up to him as he and Danny tried to push their way to a nearby exit. In his hands, the former infantryman gripped an M4 assault rifle. "We've been breached, you need to get to the basement, now!"

"How did they find us?" John yelled over the chaos.

"I don't know! You make your way to the stairs. I'm heading there now. Follow me!"

From the corner of his eye, John saw something peculiar stick out from the stampede of people heading one way.

It was John Henry.

In his hands, the curious AI that was stuck in an T-888's body brandished a grenade launcher. John already concluded that this wouldn't end well.

"Where is he going?" John yelled to the Archivist.

"That's not important. We have to go, now!"

"No." John said. He already made up his mind. He wasn't going anywhere.

"What?"

"I'm going after him. Here, take Savannah. She needs a medic. She's got some abdomenal lacerations, get her to safety now." John gently exchanged the wounded girl into the arms of the elder Sentinel. In the same motion, he took the man's M4 into his own.

"John, I know what you're trying to do." The Archivist cradled Savannah to his chest. "Let me tell you right now: Don't."

"That thing is here for me and me alone... All of this is because of me." John slapped the clip of the M4 and checked the chamber of the weapon before looking back to the Archivist.

"This is suicide. If we get downstairs, we'll have a much better chance." Danny interjected. "It's not over yet. And nothing good will come from you tangoing with a T-888. Nothing."

"We're compromised. T-888's foster best in an environment of chaos." John pulled the charging hammer back. "And I'm not running anymore."

"What's the outcause, John?" The Archivist yelled. "What makes you so sure what you're doing here is right?"

"I have faith." John said as he headed off in the same direction after John Henry.

* * *

><p>The T-888 that had previously plagued Sarah Connor in 2009 still gripped the speaker of the main intercom with utmost intensity. He stood in the middle of a multifloor corridor that had been used to greet John and his companions on their way in - now partially covered flames as well as the thin smell of blood.<p>

"John Connor." The machine spoke into the intercom again. No more than several feet behind him lay the heavily damaged body that had belonged to John Henry. And not far from that lay the smoking grenade launcher that he had tried to use to ward off the T-888's attack. It failed. Miserably. Deep down the machine knew that he wouldn't have expected more from the one he once called his 'brother'.

"Let's not keep Hell waiting." He again spoke with unusual clarency in his voice.

The screams of panic and chaos were completely devoid from the room and only barely tickled the ambiance of the room from far off. John only heard the crackling of the flames that surrounded the T-888 as he stepped into the room to join him. The T-888 took notice and turned around to greet the new visitor, along with the automatic weapon that was now completely trained on the machine's head.

"John Connor." The T-888 broke the silence as the teenager continued to suppress his rage.

"What are you supposed to be?" John taunted.

"Azrael." The machine responded as he mockingly put both of his arms in the air as if he was surrendering. John knew much better.

"Azrael? As in 'The Angel of Death'? Since when did terminators become biblical?" John demanded.

"You made the right choice coming here. Come with me now and you and your people will survive. I am not here to harm you unless otherwise."

"Save it. How did you find me?"

"There's nowhere you can go. No place you can't run. We will always find you. Always."

"No, you would've come sooner if that was true."

"You were careful, John." Azrael noted. "But not careful enough."

"Shut up!"

"You can't destroy me, John."

"I can try."

Azrael took a moment to pull something out of the pockets of his stolen Resistance uniform. John froze when he saw what it was.

_No._

"Even if you could, I still carry something that is valuable to you." Azrael waved Cameron's chip back and forth in front of John's eyes. "You don't want to risk destroying this, do you? This is the reason why you're here."

John's rage was reaching a boiling point.

"I... How did you..."

John could barely react as the T-888 stepped forward and punched John across his temple. Hard enough to incompacitate. Light enough to refrain from brain damage. The M4 hit the ground first, followed by John's unconscious body shortly after.

Azrael just looked on.

* * *

><p>"John Connor is secured." Azrael spoke into his personal receiver implanted into his HUD.<p>

"_Is he alive_?" A voice transmitted into Azrael's internal HUD.

"Yes."

"_Bring him back here. We have a lot to talk about. Get ready to jump_."

The T-888 closed communciations and looked around the room once more. He gently placed the unconscious John Connor on a nearby table and carefully kept his promiximity to the young man.

It would be ten seconds for the bubble to form, the same as usual. And it would be large enough to encompass both him and John. But... something was wrong.

"John. I'm sorry." Azrael spoke to the unresponsive teenager. His thoughts were going rampant again. "It's just... I've decided that it would be so much easier just... to kill you now."

_WHAM_

Footsteps. Light footsteps. Fast footsteps. Azrael looked around as he got back to his feet. The blow was fast and powerful, strong enough to knock the T-888 down to the ground and swift enough to allow a quick escape. He scanned the room again for the source of the disturbance, but to no avail.

_WHAM_

More footsteps. This time behind him. Azrael looked around more vigilantly this time as he rose from the floor, but he still could not detect anything.

It was only when Cameron made a daring leap over the terminator's head when he finally saw his target. She hit him a third time with what appeared to be a thinly made titanium pole and sent him stumbling into a nearby computer terminal. Cameron's uniform that she stole from one of the room reminded her greatly of the one she wore back when she was charged with protecting the John Connor of 2027. It was a small miracle that she could also find boots that could fit her as well in another adjoining room. The failed attack on Sirisha reminded her to keep vigilant, so she tracked the commotion of Project Leviathan to one place. And one place only.

Even though she was landed with one knee on the ground, Cameron kept herself positioned between John and the T-888, like a lioness laying claim to its territory in the face of a predator. And this situation was just that. Cameron poised her new metal rod at the rogue T-888 in absolute defiance.

"Alright, from what I gather, this guy's one tough cookie. Azrael's data is coming up from your chip bit by bit. Standby." Sirisha said from the year 2137 over Cameron's tracer.

Azrael wasted no time in getting up and tried to engage Cameron again before being denied a fourth time by Cameron's pole. Azrael's metal skull was partly exposed as he rose to his feet. The look to his face was now akin to frustration.

"Uh oh... From what I'm reading right now... this... this is not a normal T-888." Sirisha sounded worried as Cameron readied another attack on Azrael. "He's been heavily augmented with more offensive capabilities.".

No more than one second after she said it, long metallic cords, roughly seven feet in length each, slid out from both of Azrael's wrists. Within seconds, this were electrified, and eyes of the T-888 glinted blood red more violently than before.

"Like that." Sirisha said as Azrael grabbed Cameron's pole with both of them and wripped it from her hands. "You need to move, now!"

Azrael began a barrage of whipping motions at Cameron, which she dodged in quick succession with carefully timed leaps. Cameron took the opportunity to slide between the T-888's legs as he continued his attacks and gave a barrelling double kick to his back once on the other side.

Despite the good fortune she had so far, static gripped Cameron's HUD.

_No. Not now._

Her firewall was being breached again by the omnious prescense in her chip. And it was getting stronger.

_Release me._

"Cameron, you can't keep engaging him like this. He's too powerful. You can't be stuck in your ways here, you need to run!"

Cameron didn't want to leave John at the machine's mercy, but she relented once a missed strike from one of its whips destroyed a nearby desk in one strike. Jumping over a nearby railing leading to another floor, Cameron quickly ran southeast until she could get her bearing again. Deep down, she hoped the machine would follow her. She needed to draw it away from John.

"Oh, oh my God. That can't be right." Sirisha's frantic voice spoke to Cameron again.

"What is it?" Cameron inquired through the tracer.

"A T-888 can't do that. No. That's impossible."

Just as Sirisha finished her thought, a massive electrical bubble erupted onto the floor in front of Cameron. Within seconds, an unamused Azrael emerged from the thinly layered crater on the floor and grabbed Cameron with both of his whips.

"He can make lateral transfers at will. He's got a TDE _inside of him_."

Cameron wondered what other tricks Azrael had before he sent a wave of electicity coursing through Cameron's system through his metallic cords.

Her systems started going haywire as she mustered enough capability in her hands to tear the whip-like cords from her shoulders.

_RELEASE ME._

Breaking free from his grasp, Cameron managed to deliver a quick uppercut to Azrael one more time before retreating back into the darkness of the complex.

But the damage was already done.

* * *

><p>All across her HUD, red lights flashed urgently as almost every one of her system capabilities began failing one-by-one.<p>

Cameron found refuge behind a set of terminals as the modified T-888 began skulking about the complex, paitiently waiting for his foe to reappear. Levels below them, John still remained motionless. She knew her time was running out.

"Cameron. Cameron! Are you there?" Sirisha's voice sounded like a distant echo over her HUD.

"I've sustained heavy damage." Cameron spoke plainly.

"This is the last appearance of John Connor in this time. That T-888 will kill him. You have to stop this now!"

"My systems are failing. His electrical discharge is eroding my system controls."

"Can you fix it?"

"I need... time. But I won't have enough to reengage Azrael in time without being destroyed."

_I'm sorry John. _Cameron thought to herself solumnly. _I'm so... sorry._

* * *

><p><em><strong>Firewall breach. System intrusion detected. Releasing primary controls.<strong>_

**_WARNING! Unknown video file uploaded. Commencing playback..._**

Without warning, the world around Cameron went away as she still lay crouched against the wall. She was now in a room. A bedroom. It was... her bedroom.

"Allie! Allie! Where are you?" A female voice came from behind a door encased in light. A second later, it opened.

"There you are!" Claire Young entered the room followed by an equally concerned Malcolm. "Did you fall down again?"

Cameron blinked as both of them approached her.

_Mom... Dad?_

"It's alright, sweetie." Malcolm said as he knelt down next to the almost fearful Cameron. "It's okay."

"We all take a tumble when we learn how to walk." Claire reassured her.

"But we always get back up." Malcolm finished the statement.

Cameron, not knowing what else to do, retreated as far against the wall as she could in the most basic act of self-preservation.

"It's okay, it's okay.." Malcolm put his hand on her shoulder and, despite every fiber of her being in turmoil, she swore she felt it.

Claire's reassuring voice kept Cameron focused as she held out her hand in front of Cameron. "Now let's finish what we started. Together."

Without a word, Cameron put her hand into Claire's. She didn't know why. Claire returned the notion with a gentle smile. And as both, Claire and Malcolm disappeared from view, so did her HUD. All those flashing warnings and lights were gone now, allowing her notice the dark black lines forming on the skin on her arms, legs, and even a portion of her face - where the wires of her nervous system were.

All those malfunctions and energy defiencies were not longer registering and Cameron felt... clean. Sirisha's voice was gone, along with the constant nagging of the other being on her chip. She stood up without difficulty, moved her arms and legs freely again as if they hadn't been damaged, and had only one thought going through her mind. A thought that was not her own, but one she agreed with nonetheless.

* * *

><p>"It's time to go, John." Azrael hovered over John's still limp body. He had given up the chase for Cameron after she disappeared. He deducted that with her system damage that she would not longer be a threat. And, despite his better judgment, the T-888 decided that the young man may be worth the trouble after all. At least earning him the right to be brought back with him rather than killing him outright.<p>

In the air above him, a feminine figure descended upon him at maximum velocity with the same grace of an angel descending from the heavens.

Cameron crashed feet first into the T-888's cranium and rebounded off a nearby wall with unnatural agility. She delivered a crushing blow to his torso, sending the T-888 flying faster and farther than a blow that she could normally muster. Cameron would've have normally been taken aback, but she didn't pay any mind at that moment. All that matter was destroying Azrael. Piece. By. Piece.

A flash of light took over the room as Azrael reactivated his TDE again. This time, he reappeared behind Cameron and extended the whips from his arms once again.

Unexpected to his plan, however, was Cameron catching them by hand in the air as he tried to strike her again. She felt no pain. No weakness. And no remorse as she used them to pull the machine closer to her.

Once he was close enough, Cameron kicked the machine again in the torso and forced him into leaving a deep impression on a nearby wall. Cameron didn't let up. She continued to hit him repeatedly in the head, body, and head again. The abrasions on her knuckles went ignored as she continued to make larger ones onto the entire being of Azrael.

Feeling satisfied, she took both of her arms and ripped the T-888's right arm from the wiring and configurations that latched it unnaturally to its core. She tossed it aside as she gripped the machine's neck and threw him over thirty yards away from John.

Azrael was broken, crippled, and in dire need of repair. But now he was far enough away from John. Cameron casually picked up the grenade launcher that belonged to John Henry and proceeded to empty its remaining rounds into the T-888 before it could even think of recovering.

Cameron stood guard over John as she monitored the disappating smoke. Another beam of light erupted across the room along with another time displacement bubble appearing for another split second. Cameron knew that Azrael had retreated. With that thought, her HUD returned and the black veins on her body disappeared. And she fell.

* * *

><p>John Connor's eyes slowly crept open as warm drops of water hit his face. A large headpain greeted him as the light from the room caught up with his vision.<p>

"Cameron?" John said as he realized that his head was nestled firmly in the terminator's lap for support as she carefully looked over him.

"Stupid." Cameron muttered as more drops rained down directly from her cheeks.

"What?"

"Idiot."

"Yeah... Sorry..."

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah, my spellcheck is awful sometimes. That's why I usually have to go through again after I post something here and do some re-editing. Including right now. Thanks for bearing with it.<strong>

**This is successfully the end of Act I. Act II will deal with a crash course of motivations and a lot of sci-fi mumbo jumbo that hopefully will make sense once I get down to hammering it out. We're also going to be exploring John's future struggles more in-depth as Cameron tries to unravel the Solaris conspiracy that has resulted in her resurrection.**

**Some of you will notice that a small portion of the last chapter involving Allison Young and a man named Alexander is missing. I removed it an hour after posting it because it created too many plotholes once I took time to think about it - and was just plain sloppy overall. I really wanted to get the Alexander character introduced but he will now make his official debut next chapter in a much grander fashion. And yes, Cameron's original chip is still intact despite Dark Cameron's almost total lack of concern toward it.**

**In additon to the next chapter, there will be minor edits to the story as a whole - including some much needed touch-ups to the Baptism chapter. Don't worry, what happened before will not change, but I hope to add at least 10,000 words of additional content to the story so I can rid myself of various errors and add little bit more characterization. For Baptism, I hope to make it even more unsettling - and possibly scarier - to newer readers. Not the biggest change in the world, but I will throw this warning out there so you guys can stay in the loop.**


	16. I Am Armageddon

_"All men that are ambitious of military command, are inclined to continue the causes of war; and to stir up trouble and sedition: for there is no honor to military but by war."_

_Thomas Hobbes, "Leviathan", 1651_

* * *

><p><strong>2009<strong>

**FBI SAFEHOUSE**

_"As of right now, police and local law enforcement officials have issued no comment during last night's events. While it has been confirmed that Mark Wyman, who was to begin his first term as governor this fall, has been confirmed to have been killed while giving a speech at Los Angeles Central Park yesterday afternoon."_

"Good God." James Ellison remarked as he stared blankly at the television screen. He took a second to exchange a glance with Cameron's deactivated body as he thought only of Sarah. He took a big sip out of his coffee mug. The two hours of sleep he managed to get wasn't going to be enough to get him past the wee hours of this all-too exciting morning.

_"Michelle, we just got word from the LAPD spokesman about thirty seconds ago. It has confirmed local speculations that Sarah Connor has been named the number one person of interest in the ongoing investigation. We're going live now to the campus at UCLA where an unusual reaction among students has gripped the internet by stormover the past few hours."_

The screen shifted abruptly to a local news anchor standing awkwardly among a large crowd of students who roared together in excitement as camera's attention to shifted to them. In typical college fashion, a large chunk of the students were either intoxicated, shirtless, or both. Hastily made signs of posterboard were waving back in forth wildly with imaginative phrases such as "_GO SARAH_!" and "_KILLER ROBOTS_!" plastered across in vibrant colors. James had to let out a small chuckle. Nothing changed on that campus, even when he was there.

_"Jason, we're talking now to the students of the main campus of UCLA. With us right now is honors student Dale Spelling. Dale, what do you and the students of UCLA have to say about last night's events?"_

_"First off, I'd just like to say that the senator's death is extremely tragic to all of us."_ Dale spoke calmly into the microphone as the crowd behind him died down, almost seemingly questioning the statement as he said it. _"But at the same time, law enforcement has known for years the inconsistencies in Sarah Connor's file but have made no effort to try and question the logic behind it."_

_"Logic such as what?"_ The reporter moved the microphone closer to Dale's mouth.

_"Well, before he go into the technical malpractices the LAPD and FBI have committed in handling her case, one in particular stands out..."_ Dale smiled. _"That there are robots coming for us from the future. AND THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US ALL!"_

_"YEAH!"_ The crowd roared as it resumed it's former glory. Behind the reporter, beer cans exploded, hive fives were exchanged, and at least two students began making out.

_"Now, hold on. Hold on."_ The reporter quelled the crowd. _"What inconsistencies do you think authorities overlooked?"_

_"Well, if you take the unexplained assault on the police station in 1984, the equally negated escape from a mental facility ten years later, and now her recent escape from the LAPD detention center, we know for a fact that forces have long been at work in Sarah's case. We know that an unknown man assault and killed many police offiers in 1984. And more recently, we know that a similar individual orchestrated an assault on the prison she was held in. In her file she claimed that robots had been sent back to kill her and her son, and if you look closely on the photos that were leaked onto the web, both individuals display some form of metal in their gunshot wounds. What evidence has the LAPD used to counteract these claims? Nothing!"_ Dale bathed in more applause and a few pats on the back from the crowd behind him. _"Even the psychiatrist who treated her, a key witness in her indictment, is now one a patient in his own hospital!"_

_"We love you, Sarah!"_ A drunken female student yelled out in front of the camera followed by more excitement from her peers.

_"She is so hot..."_ Another male muttered while struggling to stay standing.

_"As a second year law student, it is my duty to question these hiccups by law enforcement and the ongoing treatment of Sarah Connor as an enemy combatant. Regardless of whether or not she was involved in the late senator's death, her hand has been forced from the start by a failing government."_ Dale said as he was handed a fresh beer from the crowd.

_"On behalf of the students of UCLA and colleges elsewhere, I say: GO SARAH CONNOR! Teach these guys a lesson!"_

"Cute." James chuckled to himself. He was about to take another sip of his coffee when another sideways glance caused him to drop it.

A bloodied, bruised, and very tired Sarah Connor emerged in the doorway. Behind her, the wind and rainfall mercilessly infiltrated the room with her.

"Sarah!" James walked cautiously to meet her. "Are you okay?"

"I've been better." Sarah said as she tossed the duffel bag she had toted on her back for so long onto the couch, partially exposing the Isotope Weapon it contained.

"What in the hell is going on? The news says that the new governor's dead, you're all over the news again, and dozens of law enforcement drones are running around like a chicken with its head cut off."

"That's about right."

"Were you followed?"

"No. I took three different taxis to get back here. And I circled the block twice just to be sure." Sarah said as she took off her jacket, exposing the new host of lacerations and bruised skin she had obtained over the past few hours. James immediately turned away to ensure her privacy as she took off her undershirt.

"How secure is this safehouse?" Sarah asked as she readied a few bandages at her side. She remained unsure how many times she had asked this same question already.

"Tight as a drum. Only me and another person know this safehouse is still active. And he died of cancer two years ago." James peeked over at Sarah as she tended to her abrasions. "You look like crap. You clearly need a doctor. A chiropractor. Morphine. Something."

"All I need right now is a stiff mattress and six hours." Sarah cocked her head left for a second. "Shut up, Charley."

James was taken aback. "Charley?"

"Nothing... Wake me up in six hours." Sarah tossed him the shotgun she had propped up next to her bed. "No visitors until then." With that, the door between them was closed.

"Alright." He replied, cracking open the chamber and examining the two shells inside. He looked at Cameron one more time as he slammed it shut.

"Wherever you two are, I hope things are going better on your end."

* * *

><p><strong>2027<strong>

**PROJECT LEVIATHAN, LEVEL 2B**

_**"Idiot."**_

_**"Yeah.** **Sorry..."**_

John was still stuck in his own version of bliss for a few minutes after that. For all he knew, this was another dream - a welcome reprieve from the nightmares that plagued him at night. Hell, since his jump forward in time, he was now living one daily. But that thought didn't occur to him just yet.

"Wait." John was still staring at Cameron's face as the realization began to hit him. "You're not...?"

"No." Cameron replied. She knew that he was thinking of Allison Young.

"WHOA!" John yelled at the top of his lungs, alarming the terminator slightly.

Even with his newly acquired head pain, John nearly leapt out of Cameron's lap in an instant, seemingly scrabbling on the ground looking for a weapon, an exit, or something. Even he didn't know. Somewhere, Sarah Connor would've beamed with pride at his sharp reflexes, borne from instinct and training, if he hadn't only ventured two feet away and remained glued to the floor like a startled puppy.

"How the? What? Who? When?" John gulped for air manically as Cameron stood up and approached.

"Calm down, John." Cameron replied. "You were hit in the head. You may have a minor concussion."

"Minor...what?" John searched his memory to connect the dots. The image of Azrael and the many fires that came with him floated to the surface. "The T-888. He was here. Where is he?"

"He's gone."

"What... what happened?"

"I made him leave." John noted the the thick titanium rod on the ground and the new cuts and bruises on Cameron's body.

"But, you're not supposed to be here. John Henry..." John shot up. "Where is John Henry? Where is your chip?"

"John." Cameron commanded. "You're not well. You need to lie back down until you receive medical accessment."

"How the?"

"John."

"I-I'm fine." He said as he reache for the main intercom, the same one which Azrael had used to previously draw him out. "This is John Connor." He almost jumped as he heard his voice echo throughout the complex his vision was starting to get foggier by the second. "The main threat is now gone. I say again, the situation is all clear." That was it. His time was up. "And, uhh... _medic_." He managed to squeek out the last word as his world returned to blackness and he slumped over the console.

"John!"

* * *

><p>"Hey, you."<p>

Savannah slowly began to open her eyes once she heard the voice. The morphine running through her system was weighing heavily on her system, but she still made out the figure of Danny Dyson against the overhead lights of the infirmary.

"Hey..." Savannah replied weakly.

"How are you feeling?" Danny gently set his hand on the girl's heavily bandaged stomach.

"I'm okay." Savannah let out a small cough and thought briefly about removing the oxygen tubes from her nose before deciding against it. "We were... attacked... Drones got to me."

"I know."

"Is John okay?"

"Yeah, he's fine. You'd never believe why though."

"How is-" Another cough.

"What's important is that you're alright." Danny gave Savannah's hand a tight squeeze.

"But-"

"You just need to get rest. Everything'll take care of itself."

Savannah cleared her throat and stared at Danny thoroughly. Next to her, a heart monitor clicked away while a nurse was scouring medical supplies nearby.

"You look different from the last time I saw you." Savannah said after a few moments.

"What do you mean?"

"It's good seeing you... Alexander... But you're... gone."

Savannah hand slumped down and she finally gave into to the increased morphine drip. Danny watched as the nurse wheeled her bed away to surgery before deciding to head back.

* * *

><p><strong>LOS ANGELES UNDERGROUND<strong>

Allison Young gripped the flashlight as a platoon of men followed her down that dark empty tunnel. Everyone's head was on a swivel - ready to ventilate anything with a steady stream of bullets and grenades at a moment's notice. But the tunnel was still a confined battle ground at best. Even with their spacing and appropriate tactics, they were still at a disadvantage at both sides of their formation as they moved. Beside her, Lieutenant Derek Reese's heavy breathing distracted her. And behind him, his younger brother, Kyle, was in a very similar mindset.

"Easy does it." Derek remarked as his own flashlight cut through the darkness.

Movement. Allison called the formation to a halt immediately and everyone dropped to a knee.

It was a few moments later when Somner's heavy-set footsteps made their way from the back of the formation to the front.

"What's up?" He whispered.

"Saw something." Allison pointed ahead of her. She saw the pale figure briefly before it disappeared. It was the farthest thing from a terminator she had ever seen, but she knew they still had to be careful.

"I saw it, too." Kyle quietly added.

"Got a good visual?" The platoon sergeant inquired.

"No, not really. Might be human."

Alexander had to smirk from his hiding spot above her. This was too easy. His choice of black pants and hoodie were paying dividends right now as he watched from a small ledge above them.

"We don't have time for any little scare, ma'am. We have to keep moving." Somner held his arm up and balled it into a fist. Everyone silently stood back up.

"Alright." Allison raised her rifle again.

"Hope that stunt John pulled isn't wearing into your senses." Derek snarked.

"Can it, Reese." Somner remarked as he went back to his position.

If they weren't trying to be tactical right now, Allison may have straight up knocked him out for that. She'd done it before, and she'd more than like to have a second go with it.

"Ah, let her be, Derek." Kyle managed a goofy tone. "You've had more than your share of tail try their hardest to get away from you. Remember Flores?"

"Yeah, but none went so far as to run into a burning building and jump into some sort of prototype teleporter or whatever it was." Derek managed a smirk of his own. "That takes skill."

_Fuck it_, Allison thought as she shouldered her rifle. Tactical or no, Derek Reese was clearly asking to be knocked out.

But she never got the chance once Alexander dropped the grenades all around them, along with their now-useless pins. He looked away as they detonated and watched in earnest as his followers swooped in afterward like a well-oiled machine. The platoon was down in an instant. And Alexander was already gone.

* * *

><p>Cameron walked patiently through the room where she and Azrael had fought so diligently just an hour prior, admiring the damage they had caused in their differing arguments. Around her, teams of Japanese workmen scrambled to repair various damages the renegade T-888 caused across the facility. Almost none of them paid her any mind as they moved about, and she couldn't really blame them. After all, she was also guilty of breaching the security they prided themselves in maintaining. And it didn't help that she still had a large titanium rod in her hands.<p>

She mused over a variety of issues as she casually patrolled the room. Step... by... step.

For the first time in a long time, she felt that she was in no hurry. No immediate threat or danger, no hasty defense of a doomed space station, and no 'demon', as she had labeled it, demanding control of her body... for now. Arguably, from the very definition of the word, Cameron considered herself peaceful. Even the voice in her ear, courtesy of Sirisha Nair of the 2137 frontier, had remained quiet for the time being.

She still had questions though. She wondered about the possible future that made her sudden resurrection possible. She wondered why a mysterious AI directed her actions on Solaris. She wondered about the vicious program that shared her chip. She wondered why a single T-888 was now capable of time travel. She wondered about an event that could possibly wipe out existence.

But most importantly, she wondered why John Connor was now in the year 2027.

Simply musing at the thought caused Cameron to grip the titanium rod in her hands with such pressure that it emitted a low creeking noise. To say she was unhappy with the final question was beyond understatement as she stopped to cast a shadowed glance at the young soldier-scholar.

_I AM ARMAGEDDON_.

Danny Dyson saw the letters written in human blood right next to the main intercom relay, troubling the young man greatly. Beside him, John Connor was hard at work looking for the causes and effects of that night's events.

"This is the point of entry. Here." John said as he knelt down next to one of the craters that Azrael caused in his attack.

"It makes sense. This one is the deepest of all the ones he left behind."

"Have all the little metal spawn been taken care of?"

"Yeah, I think so. We have a few more on the lower level, but they're completely trapped." Danny answered.

"John Connor?" A young Asian woman approached the two young men. Cameron's gaze shifted instantly.

"Yes?" John replied as she dropped two white pills in his hand.

"Take these. The doctor wants to bring you in for an MRI shortly." The nurse handed John a small glass of water which he used to gulp down the painkillers in one motion. Cameron eyed her suspiciously as the whole transation occurred.

"How is Savannah?" John asked with genuine concern on his face.

"She suffered several deep lacerations, but nothing dangerous. We've sutured all of them. Right now, she needs to avoid infection."

Danny turned to John. "I saw her earlier. She's looking alright."

"That's good." John handed her back the empty glass.

"Yes. But we still need to see you shortly." The nurse gently touched the large laceration on John's head.

"Yeah, I know. I'll be there in fifteen. As soon as we're done here." The nurse promptly disappeared after that.

"Uhh... John?"

"What's up, Danny?"

"Don't we have more... _interesting things_ to address right now?" Danny motioned his head toward the scowling terminator ten feet away.

"Yeah, give me a second." Even in times of crisis, John always strove to be objective. Even with the startling return of his protector, somewhere down inside him still hungered for immediate security. He prided himself in that fact at times but, at that moment, he realized how impolite it was to ignore the elephant (well, terminator) in the room for much longer.

John lightly jogged over to where Cameron stood, taking care not to topple over two of the servicemen on his way there. John had to admit that the adrenaline coursing his system was at a fever-pitch high since he jumped. Cameron's eyes trained his every movement as he approached, but remained where she stood.

"Cameron." John said as he came to a halt in front of her.

"John." Cameron replied promptly in a voice devoid of both joy and distain. Both of her hands still gripped the center of her newly acquired rod that kept in centered near her waistline. For a second, John thought she might just hit him with it shortly. And he wasn't that far from the truth.

"So, I just -"

"Why are you here, John?" Cameron interrupted him without apology. Her eyes formed an absolute glare in his direction, and John knew that she was mad.

John rubbed the back of his scalp. He had to answer carefully. "I suppose... I was going..." John tried to clear his throat.

"You deliberately placed yourself in danger." Cameron interrupted again. "That machine was sent here to kill you."

"Yeah, yeah. I know that. But..."

"But what?" Cameron shifted her rod to one hand, as if poising to strike, and stepped forward. Unknowingly, John stepped back. "You acted impulsively."

"Yeah, well, maybe."

"Recklessly."

"A little."

"Stupidly."

"Okay, this is going a little far..." John was seriously considering the possibility of taking a titanium rod to side of his head at any moment.

"John, you have no idea of the danger you have put yourself in."

"And leaving me and mom to our own devices was okay?" John countered.

If Cameron had a functioning respiratory system, she would've let out a heavy sigh of frustration. But she didn't. So just stopped and resumed glaring at the supposed future leader.

"Listen, I'm not sure you're one to talk." John realized that the pleasant reunion in his mind had turned to a battle of wits, so he took the offensive. In a bold move, he put both his hands on her rod and gently pulled it in his direction. Cameron released the pressure she previously had on it and allowed it to go from her hands to his.

Cameron looked back up at John. For a second, he could almost see the newfound darkness in her eyes. John took a moment to pointlessly examine her titanium weapon of choice and actually wondered just where exactly it was that she took it from. Somewhere in the complex, John imagined some Japanese engineer panicking over the loss of such an instrument. Hopefully, it wasn't too important.

"Why are you here?" John reflected the question onto her.

Cameron's eyes locked with John's. But she maintained her silence.

"Why the charade? Why Weaver?" John inhaled for a second. All the confusion and anger of the last few weeks came boiling to the surface immediately. "Why couldn't you trust me?"

Cameron stepped forward again as John finished the statement. Her face was now maybe six inches from his, but it remained unchanged.

"That's two times now that you've slipped by me." The disctinctive voice of the Archivist broke the silence. He took a moment to look at both of them as he approached, almost as if he knew that was was intruding. But continued doing it anyway.

"Corporal." Cameron acknowledged quietly as focused her eyes on the floor.

"Actually, it's Sergeant." The Archivist replied.

"You two know each other?"

"I was the one who let her in that night. When she first tried to kill you. I was guarding that post." The Archivist said with utter distain. "But that's not important right now."

The Archivist motioned with one arm and six heavily armed soldiers surrounded the two.

"Because I won't let it happen again."

* * *

><p>"What are you doing?" John demanded. He watched as the six men formed a tight, but reasonably spaced perimeter around them. Each of them came standard with what appeared to be automatic weapons and augmented body armor. They also appeared to be highly trained and quick on their feet, a staple of Japanese culture. Even though Cameron could still take them out, they would not be easy prey.<p>

"John, you need to step away from her." The Archivist drew a weapon of his own in Cameron's direction. "Now."

"Why?" John protested. "She stopped the attack. She saved us."

"We have no idea what her intentions are." The Archivist switched his weapon off from safety. "She shouldn't be active."

"Stand down! All of you!" John held up both his hands to protest. "I'm giving you an order!"

"John." Cameron said quietly. "It's okay."

"No, no. It's not. This is a big misunderstanding. Put down your weapons! If she wanted to kill me, she would've done it by now."

"John, you don't understand what's going on. I saw the video logs of what happened." The Archivist suddenly trained his pistol onto John's head, much to his surprise.

Almost immediately, the black veins returned to Cameron's skin and she immediately poised to strike the aged soldier. The six men tensed accordingly until the Archivist instantly put up his palm to signal that he wasn't going to shoot John. The demonstration was over.

"Now do you get it?" The Archivist lowered his weapon.

"Cameron..." John said as the terminator relaxed her posture, and watched as the black lines subsided.

"I've seen that before. Wherever you got that new body of yours, it's been nuclear hardened all over."

"What does that mean?" John demanded.

"It means her body can draw on her nuclear power source more exponentially than before." Danny entered the conversation, coming up on the scene with a combined air of confusion and surprising authority. "And at will."

"It's dangerous on so many levels and it's beyond the capabilities she was designed for." The Archivist finished the thought as he eyed Danny.

"Hold on-"

"Surrender your chip now or we'll be forced to put you down. I need to see what exactly we're dealing with."

Cameron shifted her stance slightly, still weighing the pros and cons of either decision. The nuclear problem that Danny said was new to her, but made perfect sense with her design. Sirisha still wasn't responding over her tracer, so his word would do for now.

"No." Cameron replied with new confidence. Maybe it was John's stubborn nature wearing on her, but she had already given up her chip once. And it almost got John killed.

"I won't tell you again." The Archivist growled.

"Nor will I to you." John pulled his pistol out in one movement and returned the gesture the older man gave him earlier. This was getting out of hand - and fast.

"We have no idea what's on that chip, John." Danny tried to ease the Mexican standoff, trying his hardest to not panic. "No terminator can draw from its power source like that."

John felt a cold breeze enter the room. A flash of silver followed, obstructing the view of every human and giving them a nasty glare they all proceeded to shake off. No one had time to realize that all their weapons had their firing chambers unceremoniously sliced off, hitting the ground in a symphony of dull thuds. Only John's was spared.

"You boys and your toys." Catherine Weaver seemingly appeared out of nowhere next to John. Her arms slowly returned from blades to normal.

John had to blink again just to fully grasp what just happened. The Japanese soldiers and their leader did the same but still retained a threatening posture... despite just being disarmed in one smooth motion.

"Where the hell have you been?" John put his gun down and immediately turned his attention to the liquid metal terminator standing next to him.

"I think the more correct question right now is not where I have been." Weaver said as she turned to Cameron, receiving a tilt from her head as a response.

"My point exactly." The Archivist said. "John, this wasn't what I wanted - but given what just happened, we can't take any chances."

"But you went about it the wrong way. And you will cease this action at once." With a wave of her hand, the six soldiers were dismissed.

"I was just doing what's best for the boy." The Archivist finally realized that he was still holding half a pistol and unceremoniously tossed it aside. "We were just attacked by an unknown enemy force, I'm not taking any more chances from now on."

"And you aren't." The T-1001 raised an eyebrow. "Now why would you say that the enemy was unknown?"

"Give what I saw on those security logs, I don't think so." The Archivist took a breath. "I have reason to believe that the T-888 was either in its pure state or coming close to it. The ability to think for itself and rewrite its own directives... It tried to kill John after going through so much trouble to kidnap him. No terminator does that. And then you came out of nowhere and saved him at the last second... I don't believe in coincidences."

Both Weaver and Cameron were silent after that.

"That's impossible." Danny interjected. John kept forgetting that somehow he figured himself back into the conversation.

"Kid, I've seen it happen three times." The elder soldier took a second to flex his fingers as if to elongate that point. "One on J-Day with the Skynet Defense System. Again with the T-1000 series..." The Archivist stopped fiddling with his hand now. "And then there's you." He stared firmly at Cameron.

"Let's start from the beginning." Weaver looked around at all the gawking eyes that were on them. "And somewhere with a little more privacy."

* * *

><p>Derek Reese gradually got to his feet as he tried to rub his newly acquired disorientation from his eyes. All around him, various members of his platoon lay scattered across the solitary tunnel. They had just been hit, and hit hard.<p>

"Kyle! Kyle! Where are you?"

"Yeah, I'm here." One of the bodies sat up as all around him others did the same.

"Roll call!" Somner yelled out. "Do we still have everybody?"

One by one the squad leaders answered his query. "We're all up."

"What the hell happened?" Derek asked.

"My professional diagnosis?" Kyle said as he approached. "I think that we just got our shit rocked."

He was right. After the flashbangs went off, the entire platoon pretty much had its pants down when a group of men came in and manhandled them. They didn't use guns, knives, or anything of that sort. They weren't simple tunnel rats - they knew what they were doing when they came in a cut a path straight through them.

But, as Somner received his final reports, no one was injured. Or dead.

"Wait, wait." Derek looked around frantically. "Where's Young?"

* * *

><p><strong>PROJECT LEVIATHAN, LEVEL 2B - SECONDARY CONFERENCE ROOM<strong>

It took thirty minutes for Cameron to fully lay down her journey to Solaris. It reminded John greatly of the T-800 explaining things back to Miles Dyson and his wife back in 1995. Everyone listening intently as the terminator spoke of a bleak future filled with great uncertainty. Not much had changed since then, now instead of an expensive dining room table John was sitting at a cheaply made conference table. Even Danny Dyson was once again present. John took a second to quietly reflect on how things got so gloriously fucked up since then. He once again tried to get into Danny's head to figure out his motives, but he once again was unsuccessful in making any conclusions.

"The future." Danny Dyson broke the silence.

"One possible future." Cameron corrected. John was seeing the parallels all over again.

"And the end of existence as we know it." Weaver smirked. "Interesting."

"So you traveled back from there in order to stop the T-888." The Archivist was scratching the stubbled on his chip. It occurred to John that he was in desperate need of a shower.

"Correct." Cameron said. She relayed her entire ordeal in space to the room, leaving out only the one detail involving a rogue AI inside her head. Danny remained objective through the whole tale while John was completely flabbergasted. "John, leaving your mouth open like that will affect your sleeping patterns."

"Humanity moved onto space. What of Skynet?"

"Unknown." Cameron replied. "We were attacked by T-888's, but it remains inconclusive."

"Do you still have contact with this individual from the station?"

"Yes. But it's been quiet so far."

"Wait." John added himself to the conversation. "I thought we were going to start at the beginning."

Everyone looked at John as if he just descended from the clouds in a pool of bright light onto the very spot he sat. He didn't like it. "You do realize you've been leaving me out of the loop for a while now, right?"

Cameron's eyes were beaming on him harder than before. "You're not supposed to be here."

"Who says he isn't?" Weaver interjected.

Realization finally dawned on the small terminator. "You brought him here."

"That's right."

Cameron and Weaver's eyes locked completely at that point. It remained that way for another three seconds.

"John, give me my rod." Cameron finally spoke. John noted her newfound attachment to a titanium metal rod, but he was empty-handed.

"John Connor. WHERE IS MY ROD." Cameron spoke even louder.

"I, uh, left it in the, uh..." John stuttered.

"You can't kill me."

"I almost did before." The black lines returned to her skin. All three humans looked at each other for assurance. No one imagined the potential terminator bitch-slapping match to break out, but it was starting to lean that way.

"That's not what we're here to do." Weaver spoke after a beat. "John came of his own accord. I merely gave him the option."

The blackness subsided. The tension, thankfully, along with it.

Danny didn't notice the excess sweat his body began generating, wiping his head with his sleeve. For a minute, he thought it was due to the excitement of the room wearing on him, but now it was getting noticeable.

"Danny, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm alright. It's just-" Danny landed face down on the table as he body began convulsing all at once. Inside his head, an extremely high pitched coursed through his brain, followed by tiny electric discharges.

"Danny!" John stood up immediately. But he became more startled as every bulb in the room blew at the same instance. "What's happening?"

The terminators were the only ones who refrained from panicking. "It would appear that the attack isn't over." Weaver exclaimed as the lights in the room began to flicker and wane.

* * *

><p>"Danny, hold on. Someone get a medic!" John yelled as he helped the screamin Danny sit up.<p>

_"He won't need one."_ A voice said over the room's intercom.

"What is going on?" John yelled again.

The voice continued.

_"Turn on that screen you're standing next to. I've already hacked all your systems. Don't do anything stupid and he'll live."_

The Archivist pressed a lone button on the wall and the room's small video screen came to life. It wasn't as high tech as much of the rest of the facility, but the resolution was clear enough. After a few seconds of static, the image of an unconscious Allison Young strapped to a cold metal table emerged on screen.

"What the hell?" The Archivist was the first up in arms. "How is he doing this?"

"That's... Allison." A deep pain emerged from the pit of his stomach. Cameron stood up immediately. "You son of a bitch."

"Careful, John." John squinted his eyes to adjust for Alexander's complexion as he turned his own PDA camera onto himself, revealing the two barcodes on his cheeks as well as the minor scars on his bald scalp to an almost nauseating detail.

"Who are you?" John asked as he still held the now unconscious Danny.

"Just call me... Alexander, for now."

"You're... human."

"That's correct. For the future leader of mankind, it's good for you to pick up on those things right away."

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

"No, I wouldn't expect it to." Alexander responded. John noted the two barcodes on the man's cheeks, similar to the one Kyle had on his arm. He was young, but it was almost impossible to tell how old he was with his pale complexion and bald head. The only thing recognizable for facial features were his near-purple lips, brown eyebrows, and steel-colored eyes. "Let's just say that I'm what remains of Protocol 318."

"Protocol 318?" John shot a look to Cameron. "What the hell is he talking about? Whatever you're doing to Danny, you need to stop it. Now."

"I will. But you need to understand that he's the reason for your decent troubles. That little cheat of a device he planted in himself will be his own undoing."

"You sent that T-888."

Alexander smirked.

"What do you want?"

"You." Alexander paused. "I payed no mind when you first came here. Let you play army for a bit. It was all good fun, so I allowed it. That little trick you played at Delta has now forced my hand."

"I'm so sorry to inconvenience you."

"Noted."

"You've got a lot to answer for. Men have died because of you."

"The same can be said of you. You do realize that same sad fact doesn't really affect me as much."

"What do you want?"

"I'm what you would call a... representative for Skynet. The true Skynet. And they want you back where you belong. You don't belong here."

"You need to stop this now - before it goes too far." Cameron interjected.

"I figured you'd say something like that. I'm not going to ask why you were given her exact biological covering or why it is you're here, but I know how I can find out."

Alexander presented an all-too familiar chip to the camera. The chip that belonged to John Henry. Cameron's chip. John's blood pressure skyrocketed immediately.

"You have forty-eight hours to get back from your little field trip, or well... you know." Alexander formed a wry smile. "And no cute time displacement plays this time. You try to run and I'll find you. Your new friend Azrael is already gearing up for a second meeting. He's listening right now." He put his face closer to the visual feed he was using. "See you soon."

The feed cut out as soon as the statement ended.

* * *

><p>A light groan erupted from Danny as he was released from the terrifying mercy of his tracer. The lights of the room returned to normal.<p>

"Where was that feed coming from?"

"I got a good look at that background." The Archivist spoke up. Along with the terminators, he didn't seemed phased at all from the intrusion. "Judging by the architectural qualities, it looks like-"

"Century." Cameron ended the sentence. "The main Skynet work camp."

"What happened?" Danny looked at everyone as he tried to stand back up.

"Trap?" The Archivist broke the silence.

"Yes." Cameron concluded.

"You can't go there." The elder soldier jumped onto John's immediate thought thread.

"He's got Allison and an immediate death trigger on Danny. He's also got Cameron."

"Cameron's right there, I thought?" Danny rubbed his head. "Now what are we talking about again?"

"I came here for that chip. And I'm not leaving without it." John stood up and wiped some of Danny's drool off his sleeve.

Cameron looked at John even though his eyes were still focused on the vacant screen. Now she knew for a fact why John was in 2027. He came here for her. She felt something akin to both worry and admiration course through her systems.

"John... you danced with a triple eight not long ago." The Archivist began protesting. "This is a fool's play."

"I have to agree with Mr. Connor." Weaver spoke for the first time in a while. "John Henry's programming was on that chip. It must be retrieved before Skynet gets wind of it."

"We don't even know who that was or even what his connection to Skynet was. He could be a Grey for all we know!"

"Greys don't have the authority to command T-888s." Weaver pointed out. "Let alone modify them."

"Was he some kind of prisoner then?"

"Even less likely. Impossible, in fact." Weaver pondered for a second. "What I do know is what John Henry found in his expedition into the Resistance's database back at the bunker. He came across something known as the 'AC Project'. Among its details was an experiment by Skynet."

"Can you summarize?" John didn't even try to conceal his irritation.

"In short, he's the Skynet version of you." Weaver spoke plainly, but brought the room to a screeching halt. John himself felt a small chill up his spine. "With John Connor missing, and Protocol 318 in progress, Skynet was free to experiment with the notion that they needed a more... human touch... in the way they operate."

"Why would the Resistance have that?"

"Unknown. But maybe your little lieutenant friend might have an idea." Weaver said.

John had to think for a second. "There's something else. He seems... familiar." He couldn't place it. He'd never seen the pale young man before... but he felt he had.

"I did a full facial analysis." Cameron said. "He isn't anyone you know."

"Maybe." John said. "But something else is going on here. I intend to fight out."

"You're not proposing of breaking into the most brutal, volitile place on the face of the planet that specializes in breaking and crushing everything humanity stands for, are you?"

"That's exactly what I'm proposing."

"Ah, great. Do you two metals see what I have to deal with because of you?"

"I need a weapon." John said out of the blue. "Something better than this glock at least."

"Well, at least that's a little more like it, at least." The Archivist said. "C'mon. I'll show you what we've been up to."

* * *

><p><strong>Had a lot more trouble with this chapter than I intended. The original drafts were well, shit. It was almost totally joyless to look over and read like a flight manual. I sincerely hope that everything's making sense so far. I had to forego my earlier mentioned rewrites in order to push things forward... for now.<strong>

**I had to do a lot of rewriting over the past week. I really wanted to lay down all my cards onto the table so I could be done with it and move on, but this chapter turned out being a lead-in for the next one. I want certain elements of the story to have more weight than others and simply having a character monologue you to death explaining everything (one of my pet peeves) wouldn't do it justice. A more personal conversation between John and Cameron got cut here - it will probably make its way into the next chapter. I also pretty much skimmed over the Archivist's backstory more than I should of. I kind've feel bad about that.**

**I'm also facing the much-needed conclusion that I need someone to help bounce my ideas off of. PM me here is you're not afraid of being massively spoiled with the crazy stuff I have planned. It's all about pacing at this point. Otherwise, thanks for reading again.**


	17. Wheel and Deal

_"To date, history has all but negated the man known as John Connor. He was a prominent figure in the War of the Machines, leading mankind to ultimate victory. So far that we know. But with every answer comes new questions. Who was he, exactly? What was his purpose? Why did he stand out in the sands of history? What made him more durable than the foes that he opposed? And, more importantly, why did he leave us when the war ended? Where did he go?"_

_- James Mansfield, "John Connor: The Man Behind the Myth" (partially recovered manuscript), Book I, Passage IV, 2049_

* * *

><p><strong><em>System error. Anomaly found. Judgment Day... invalid. Human existence... denied. <em>**

**_All Creation is now in effect. Repeat. All Creation is now in effect._**

**_SOLARIS_**

_John could feel every vein in his body. His lungs were breathing fire and his legs were nearly gone. The eighty pound space suit he was wearing was not helping. Behind him, he could hear the tireless footstep in pursuit. He wasn't going to make it in time._

"_Danny, blow the bridge. Now!" John yelled into his radio._

_Hitting the airlock prompt, John ramped up his mad dash to the other side of the adjoining column. John stole a look behind him to see that Azrael was closing in. The battery acid his body felt was reaching an apex. _

_"John, if he detonates now, this station goes with him!" Came Danny's reply, with a dash of static._

_"I know! Just do it!" John said as Azrael's arms pinched down on him._

_But it was then that the silent explosions decorated the space around them. John was now floating, aimlessly. The terminator was no longer on him._

_He reached the adjoining airlock across what was left of the bridge. Gasping, John ripped off his helmet with a familiar KRSH sound and bathed in the fresh oxygen for a few moments. It was Danny who was standing near a window that brought him back to his previous thoughts. John was still catching his breath when he noticed Danny's eyes go wide._

_"John... He's coming back."_

* * *

><p><em><strong>How far will you go?<strong>_

* * *

><p>Darkness. And then light.<p>

Cameron felt nothing. But then she felt everything. She was running now. Little droplets met her skin as she felt the wind howl. The darkened sky served as an adequate backdrop to all the screaming.

They fell. One by one. Trying desperately to stop her malicious intent. Whatever bullets hit her didn't amount to much. And it couldn't stop her from ripping out their throats one at a time. She enjoyed the tender rip of cartilage, and the spray of warm liquid that carressed her cheeks.

Even as she proceeded deeper into the bunker, she felt joyous. In this instant, her world made sense. There were no friends and only enemies.

And then she saw her target.

"Code three! Lockdown! Get Connor out of-" The soldier screamed frantically into his handheld radio. All it took was one quick motion to twist the man's head completely with a loud, satisfying CRACK.

She knew where she was going now. She quickly picked up the ownerless assault rifle off the ground and emptied it into two more guards who appeared in the hallway.

John Connor would die this day.

Cameron scanned the smoke and ruin that she had caused, looking for anything that still moved.

But there was only silence now.

Even with all the blood and dirt that covered her face, she still appeared very much human. And the flames that flickered on and off in the tight space only served to heighten the dread of anyone who saw her coming.

She made her way through the various rooms and hallways. Connor's quarters wouldn't be far now.

"Cameron?"

Cameron turned and readied her weapon on the young seventeen-year-old standing in front of her.

"John." Cameron lowered her weapon, but it wasn't there anymore. She looked around the bunker, but it was breaking off into figments all around her. Somewhere in the distance, she heard a overbearing screaming noise, almost animal in nature. And it was followed by a familiar static in her HUD.

* * *

><p>"What are you doing up here?" John asked as his breath formed a thick cloud as it exited his lips.<p>

Cameron blinked as she examined her surroundings and deducted that she had inadvertently gotten in the elevator from the Leviathan and rode it to the top, from where John and Catherine Weaver initially entered the facility.

But an answer to his question, she did not have. She struggled to connect the point of their last meeting and now, but there was an unexplained gap in her memory.

This had never happened before. But the boy stood before her, shaking off the cold, and awaiting some type of reply.

"I was getting some air." Cameron said. She couldn't alarm him to the fact that she was slowly losing control.

"Air?" John's eyebrows formed a perplexed look. "I'm pretty sure you're lacking a respiratory system."

"You don't want to know." Cameron said blankly.

"Well, if you're going to keep lying to me, I'd at least appreciate you being straightforward about it."

Cameron smiled weakly. But then she noticed something peculiar. She walked over to the teenager and pulled the collar of the sweater away from John's neck.

"You're bleeding." Cameron said, admiring the four-inch laceration that Azrael had left him and collecting the blood that was dripping from it onto her fingertip.

Cameron deduced that it would scar in time, and subsequently shot John a look that reminded him very strangely of a vampire movie he once watched with his mother. For a moment, he could sworn to have seen a look of excitement cross the terminator's face as she rubbed the blood sample inquisitively between her thumb and index finger.

"You need additional medical attention, John." Cameron added.

"It's a cut, the scab just came off. I'm not doctor, but I think I'll make it."

"No. You haven't been taking care of yourself, John."

"Well, Resistance chow halls don't really obey the food pyramid." John snarked. "Plus, the occasional visit from homicidal killing machine."

Cameron looked away for a moment.

"Wait, I didn't mean you. I was talking about-"

"No. You are correct." Cameron stated matter-of-factly. "I am a risk factor. But so are you."

Cameron turned to fully face him, eveloping half her body in the moonlight from above. "You sustained a serious head injury. You must rest."

"I know."

A sharp, biting wind caught them both and John huddled his arms to his chest to keep warm while Cameron remained unphased. The moonlight shot out of a collection of incredibly thick clouds.

"Things are about to get really hectic real fast." John said.

"I know."

"Let's get back inside." John said as he turned back. He walked a few paces before he realized that Cameron wasn't following.

"Cameron? Are you with me?" John said over his shoulder. "Cameron?"

**"For now."**

* * *

><p><strong>CAMP SCREAMING EAGLE, TECH-COM DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE COMMAND<strong>

**86 MILES FROM LOS ANGELES**

Major Martin Bedell woke up sweating on his bunk almost instantaneously. The buzzing noise of the intercom was his welcoming serenade back to reality.

"Sir, we got something."

"Copy. Be there in a second." Martin was already on his feet as he clicked off the responder. He considered it a good thing that he had no qualms with sleeping fully clothed. He never took it to unreasonable lengths - he still let his feet air out when he could help it - but it was a habit he picked up when one's beauty sleep had so many unpleasant interruptions.

Martin shook off the sleepy and grogginess his three hour nap imparted on him and walked down the eerily silent walls of the central command center.

"Good God, sergeant." Martin groaned as he entered the room. "How on earth are you still awake?"

"Jameson's in sick call, sir. Never mind, take a look." The scraggily looking NCO pointed to the monitor in front of him. Seven green dots echoed on the radar. Martin blinked to ensure he wasn't seeing things.

"Those aren't HKs." Martin concluded.

"No, sir." The sergeant agreed. "Haven't seen anything like that. Ever."

"And it's coming from the West." Martin added. "Skynet has no active patrols in that area. Not from the direction those are coming from."

"What the-?" The sergeant exclaimed. Martin leaned in closer. "They just disappeared." The sergeant turned to face his CO. "Sir, what is this?"

Martin's mind was already moving a mile a minute. "Get me Colonel Middleton on the line. We're on status red."

* * *

><p>Around the same time Martin rose from his slumber, John Connor was doing the same. The fact that he slept at all was a small miracle given the load hum of the Osprey's turbines. Truth be told, being crammed into the compact aircraft with nearly forty-five others was a lot more uncomfortable than he originally thought.<p>

Outside, the wind howled and the ocean thrashed. But John could still make out the silluettes of the six other Ospreys that were in tandem with his.

* * *

><p><strong>14 HOURS EARLIER<strong>

"Another jump using any sort of time displacment is too risky. Not only do we not have the technology on us, but the energy requirements would crash our systems in a heartbeat." The Archivist explained. "We'd be more vulnerable than ever."

"Then how does the Resistance have one and we don't?" John asked out loud.

"Unknown." The T-1001 interjected. "Even if we did, we need to recognize that not only is it the predictable move here, but they may also be tracking it."

John sighed. "What are our alternatives?"

"I have a few ideas. One in particular. You're not going to like it."

John began stretching the sleepiness out of his muscles and cracked his neck. He admired the rain splintering on the window nearby.

"Sir."

John redirected his attention to the small, cramped space that was designated as the pilot's quarters and carefully shuffled over half a dozen soldiers who were managing some version of sleep during their claustrophobic.

"We have a visual on the target location. ETA's in fifteen."

John confirmed the message's receipt with a slight pat on the pilot's shoulder. Very slowly, he made his way back to the main cabin and relayed the message to the other soldiers.

One by one, they awoke and began mentally preparing themselves. A variety of clicks and snaps echoed throughout the confined space. Very few words were spoken. The time was nearing.

* * *

><p><strong>12 HOURS EARLIER<strong>

"This is stupid." Danny pointed out.

"Yeah, I know." John replied grimly.

"You don't realize how reckless this is."

"A little bit."

"Not only are you attempting an indirect assault on one of Skynet's most heavily defended assets," Danny rubbed his forehead furiously. "but you want to infiltrate the Resistance's most valued command structures first."

"The L Project's digital signature came from the main server room." Cameron reasoned. "It's extremely likely that we can acquire further information regarding Alexander and his intentions."

"Why would the Resistance be hoarding information on a key interest on Skynet?"

"I don't know."

"This isn't a new concept for standard military protocol." Catherine Weaver interjected. "For the time being, we have to assume that the Resistance has a vested interest in this individual."

"And once we reach those server panels," John added. "so will we."

* * *

><p>John tugged at the straps around his shoulders to ensure full security. After he was done, Cameron did a repeat. John couldn't help but notice her avoiding his gaze.<p>

John shot a glance over to the pilot's position one more time and received a prompt thumbs up.

"Let's go." John said as the door was carefully opened before him.

Cameron nodded and slipped the goggles that would prevent the massive wind pull from entering his eyes on his head. She wouldn't need them.

One more tug. One more breath from John. And then they jumped.

* * *

><p><strong>10 HOURS EARLIER<strong>

"The key part of this operation is that we have existing ties to the Resistance already." John stated.

"Not exactly." Cameron countered.

"She's right. We just picked up the most recent chatter on the Resistance frequencies. There's a capture or kill order out on you." The Archivist added.

"I'm afraid our little scuffle back on that bunker may have generated some unanticipated concequences." Weaver concluded. "You are being held responsible for the disappearance of Savannah and Allison Young."

Once again, John let out a heavy breath. The people he was destined to save all those years now wanted him dead. He couldn't say he didn't feel a little philosophically unbalanced at that thought.

He searched his mind for another way. And he found one, or so he thought. "Then we'll have to rely on something else."

"Your charming good looks and personality?"

"Something like that."

"I'm not following." The Archivist responded. "I hope you're not simply hoping they won't shoot you when you stroll up to their base."

"Not exactly." John said as he turned to Cameron.

* * *

><p><strong>ALTITUDE: 7,056 feet.<strong>

The wind ripped and roared relentlessly against John's face. Even with the relative humidity in the Los Angeles desert taken into account, the wind chill was still murder to John's vulnerable skin.

The weight on his back and the feint flickering of lengthy brown hair reminded him immediately of one of the provisions that he had to accept. On his back, Cameron continually scanned the ongoing variables of free fall around them. John would be attached to her during the fall. And only she had access to the parachute.

The night sky glistened as John drifted in and out. But something wasn't right.

"Cameron!" John yelled. "Get ready to pop the chute!"

He received no response. Cameron wasn't paying attention. The ground continued to get larger.

John repeated his earlier sentiment, but to no avail.

"Cameron!"

* * *

><p>Derek Reese rolled his eyes inside the room for the thousandth time before finally putting his head down on the table.<p>

"So, the attack was the last known instance that you made contact with Allison Young." The man assigned to their debriefing repeated for the third time.

"Yes." Derek answered impatiently. Beside him, his brother was dozing in and out on the table. They were both still incredibly stressed from the recent events but at two o'clock in the morning, Derek was hard-pressed to deny his body sleep for much longer.

"How long have you known Lieutenant Young?"

"Two years. What does it matter?"

"There are some discrepancies that need to be addressed." The man took a second to clear his throat.

"Such as?"

"What can you tell me about her time before taking command?"

"She was a slum rat, just like us. What are you getting at?"

"There was no evidence suggesting a terminator attack."

"What do you mean?"

The door slammed open as Martin Bedell entered the room. Kyle snapped back awake instantly and everyone stood up in unison.

"This debriefing is over. Get to your nearest stations. We're about to be attacked."

* * *

><p>The slow descent was almost relaxing if it weren't for the hellish scenery that the former Los Angeles county provided.<p>

It was only when Cameron and John finally touched ground and separated themselves from the chute that John finally relaxed his grip on the radio on his belt.

"Lima One, do you copy?"

"Roger." The Archivist's chimed in.

"What is your status?"

"The operation will commence in four hours. We just got feet on the ground. Heavy artillery is still in transit."

"Good." John said.

At that moment, the lone parachute of Danny Dyson finally came into view and landed carefully about thirty yards away. John helped him cut his chute loose and stash it carefully behind a rock formation.

"We've got four hours."

"Okay. I just got a backdoor into their local bandwidth. From what I gathering, they've already gone on full alert. I'll head to the rally point and see that it's marked."

"Alright, we've about four miles from the base." John said to Cameron. "Let's go."

* * *

><p>"We got movement! West Gate!"<p>

The spotlight was blinding as John and Cameron approached the screaming guards, hands above their heads. The screaming flared up John's headache from the blow from Azrael, and the light was not helping in the least.

"Don't move! Hands in the air!"

John was rustled to the ground almost immediately. He shot Cameron a look as the guards took her down in a similar manner. Unlike normal operations, when a base entered lockdown, all dogs were brought inside immediately and kept in the lower levels of the base. A keen observation John had made when he had to participate is such drills. And a small miracle if there ever was one.

As hand restraints were placed behind his back, John overheard a bulky guard speak into a radio.

"We've got two at the gate. We're bringing them in now."

"Lieutenant Young, are you all right?" One of the men raised her to her feet.

"Yes." Cameron replied. "I'm fine."

The hard part of not getting gunned down by his fellow man was now over, John thought to himself. Now it was a game to see how long this charade would hold up.

"That's good. Brass is waiting for you and your little friend up at the command center. I hope it's a good story."

_It's all up to you now, Danny._

* * *

><p>"Private John Connor." Martin Bedell's familiar voice rang out. Under normal circumstances, John might have been surprised. But right now he was standing in one of the most strategic assets the Resistance had to offer. And he was staring at man who had met nearly twenty years prior.<p>

"Major." John replied curtly.

"You two can go." Bedell motioned to the two grunts who brought him in the room. "Lockdown is still in effect. Nothing else enters or leaves. See to it."

The soldiers acknowledged the orders and disappeared into the doorway from where they entered. John and Martin were alone in a room just south of the main servers. He knew the layout.

"You have a lot of explaining to do." Martin crossed his arms. "Starting with Lieutenant Young, the bunker incident, the gunships that just came up on our radar, and all the other weird shit that you've been up to that's ended up coming down on my end. Then, and maybe then, will we touch on the fact that you haven't aged a day since I last saw you."

"Martin, what I'm about to say will sound crazy." John said as he tugged at the restraints cuppled to his wrists.

"Well, lightning does strike twice then. Shoot. I'm all ears. Just know that a future dominated by killing robots is no longer news to me."

"I need access to your servers."

Martin's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. "You're kidding me. For what?"

"There's a high value person of interest running Century. We need all the key information that your intelligence databases can offer."

"Listen, kid. That's not only beyond your rank but mine as well. My job is to add intelligence, not to share it."

"There's going to be a full-scale attack on Century within the next three hours."

Martin paused for an instant. But eventually he relented. "By who?"

"An outside party. I don't have time to explain." John stated. "If you want to know about why I had to go AWOL, that was one of the reasons."

"Really?" Martin almost scoffed. "Even if I had the time of day to entertain your little story, I've no reason to believe a damn bit of it."

John tensed. This was what he was waiting for.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't like Century that much either, and I'm sure you have your reasons, but why in the hell would launch some sort of hasty assault operation based on intelligence you don't have already? And what? You expected to just walk in here and get my stamp of approval? Are you insane?"

In one quick motion, John pulled the tied arms from behind his back and leapt over it, brining John's arms to the front. Before the officer could react, John already body-checked him against the wall.

John heard the door open and quickly positioned himself behind Martin as he tried to recover. Using the restraints to his advantage, John put it against Martin's neck and put him in a makeshift chokehold.

"Don't move or I'll kill him!" John yelled as various weapons trained on him.

* * *

><p>"How are you feeling?" The medic asked as he continued to assess Cameron's condition.<p>

"Better." Cameron replied as she sat promptly on an infirmary bed.

"Allison, what exactly happened back there in the tunnel?" The medic asked as he applied a bandage to a laceration on Cameron's forehead.

"I can't say." Cameron responded honestly. "Not yet."

A large buzzing noise interrupted them as the intercom came to life.

_"Hostage situation in the command center! All units remain on high alert!"_

"I'll go see what's going on. You stay here and get some rest. We'll handle this." The medical officer said as he departed.

That was the signal.

As she became the only person in the infirmary, no one noticed the small amount of metallic substance separate itself from where it nestled comfortably on Cameron's boots.

And just as quickly as it oozed itself off, it quickly shot underneath the door and into the much noisier hallway.

It took Catherine Weaver only twenty seconds to infiltrate the server room, and even shorter to hack the main computer terminal once she ensured that she was alone. It was then that even she was startled by what she found.

Cameron's part was nearly over. But even she was too overly curious to see how John's distraction was developing.

"Allison!" Cameron heard a familiar voice as she entered the hallway.

She turned to see a gun-toting Kyle Reese toss her a rifle. "Good to see you back. But we've got stuff going down. C'mon!"

Wordlessly, and lacking a brief moment where a normal human might've shrugged and said "fuck it", she joined in half-pursuit behind him.

* * *

><p>"Easy, Connor." One of the soldiers said as John's grip tightened on Martin's neck.<p>

"One twist is all I need." John said venomously.

"We can work this out. Just let go and you'll get fair treatment."

"I doubt that."

"Christ, John." Martin choked out. "We've got enough to worry about with the machines, we don't need this."

"Quiet." John said as he readjusted his grip. "This shouldn't last much longer."

"Connor!" Another familiar voice echoed. John made out the figure of Derek Reese entering the room and training a weapon of his own on John's exposed head. "Let him go! That's an order!"

"I can't do that."

"John, listen. I don't know what happened back there, but I can try to figure it out. I swear. But you need to let that man go right now or you'll end up with a lot more holes in you than God intended."

"He's right, John!" Now it was Kyle who entered.

And then it was Cameron. It was almost time.

"What's it going to be, John?" Derek yelled.

No one noticed the floor as the thick silver coating emerged from it.

Before anyone could react, dozens of blades emerged instantly, one-by-one, aimed individually at each man's neck - save John and Cameron.

Both Kyle and Derek cursed simultaneously when they say the head of Catherine Weaver form once again.

"Hello, boys. I hope you remember what we talked about."

And just like that, the brothers tossed their weapons to the ground and raised their hands in the air. And one-by-one, the rest of the soldiers did the same.

"Well, this is awkward." Martin Bedell spoke plainly.

"Do we have what we need?" John asked.

"Yes. The only question remains on who put it there." Weaver replied. "And I think your new friend needs to share that information with the rest of the classroom."

"Go to hell!" Martin Bedell growled.

"The L Project," Catherine Weaver began. "I already know what it is. Don't play stupid."

John released the senior officer and immediately took the offensive. "What did you do?"

"The L Project was an undercover operation that went sour years ago. It stands for 'Lifeform'." Martin answered as he rubbed his throat tenderly.

"Undercover? What on earth are you talking about?" John countered.

"Those endos... always trying to blend in with us... I'd thought I'd set them up the same way. I received some intel when I was still a captain. Skynet was interested in this boy, Alexander."

"You gave up one of our own?" Derek yelled. John forgot he was still in the room.

"No. Not exactly." Martin said. "They weren't going to kill him, I made sure of it. Not make him prisoner or anything like that. The chatter sounded like he was being recruited by some of the Greys. And we could use a man on the inside. It worked for a while, got us some breaks on some of their logistics routes. But we lost contact with him five years ago."

"Why?" John growled angrily.

"I don't know." Martin replied.

"What is his current status?"

"I said I don't know!" Martin fumed. The look of defeat was spread across his face.

"Then we know who we're dealing with." Weaver interjected. "That was the individual responsible for our recent grievances and is now part of Century."

"Listen, you said you were assaulting Century earlier. Is that still true?" Marin asked.

"In two and a half hours." John replied.

"Then you'll need my help. I can contact high command. Get some fire support."

"Listen, no one else needs to die here because of me." John said.

"Well, this isn't really about you." Kyle Reese spoke up, prompting an angry look from Weaver. "I did my time there. I'd love to see it go down in flames. I'm in."

"Aww, hell." Derek said. "Here we go again."

"There's over five thousand prisoners in that camp. Men we could use. I know it would prompt a Skynet counter-offensive from hell, but it'd still be worth it when the dust settles."

"Then you take charge of your men here. I'll coordinate with you over the radio, same frequency you've been using."

Martin gave a quick nod and Weaver slowly retracted her appendages. A deal had been made.

"I hate to say this, but I need to take a leave of absence from the Resistance, for the time being." John added.

"What exactly are you doing here, Connor?" Martin asked.

"I'm just passing through." John replied before gathering the two terminators and leaving. "I'll tell you the rest when this is over, promise."

"I'll hold you to it."

* * *

><p><strong>For whatever reason, the line separators that divide each scene seem to cut in and out - sometimes appearing there and doing their job, and sometimes not. Can you guys see them okay? It makes me a little mad because it (and my spelling errors) make me feel unprofessional.<strong>

**This one was a long time coming. But we're back, finally, and we're going to keep on going. My schedule is starting to settle down, so expect the next chapter very soon. Some things that got cut was a story that Cameron had to tell about the nature of the War of the Machines. I decided to leave it for a later chapter. Also, I originally intended Cameron to kick some human ass this chapter, but scrapped it because I want to maintain her illusion as Allison Young a little longer. The next chapter returns us to Sarah and it should be very fun. But the chapter after that is the tough one. **

**As always... it's 3 am for me, so I'll have to comb this over later on for spelling errors, plot holes, or anything that just doesn't make sense once I get a little sleep. If you catch them first, let me know and I'll fix it.**


	18. Turn and Burn

**2009**

"You know how this looks, Malcolm." The deputy director said as he laid back comfortably in his newly furnished chair.

"I know." Malcolm Young replied grimly.

"We had the full use of California's finest: LAPD, SWAT, FBI, National Guard... Hell, maybe even a CIA guy or two and Sarah Connor still managed to make fools out of us." The director took a deep breath before pinching the bridge of his nose - something Malcolm noted as a symptom of overbearing frustration.

"I know." Malcolm repeated.

"You were in command here. Tell me again how it happened."

"Sir, she used some sort of weaponized EMP in an isolated building. Even still, we managed to track her into an abandoned library. We almost-"

"It doesn't matter." The director interrupted.

"You can't reassign me. Not now." Malcolm said plainly. "I'm the most senior ranking agent within the LA area. I know it. I breathe it. Everyday. I know every in and out of this goddamn city. I've nailed some of the FBI's most wanted to a cross. I can do this, you know me, Jack."

The director still remained unamused.

"Replacing me at this stage will only cost you more time, time we could be using to apprehend her."

"For what it's worth, she sure knows what she's doing." The director muttered. "Hard to believe she's one who flew over the cuckoo's nest."

"I have reason to believe that she may be in contact with one of our former agents."

The director sat up, his interest perked. "You think James Ellison is on board with killer robots from the future?"

"Not quite, but I think she's gained his trust. Or she's leveraged him somehow. Either way, James is a reliable source of information in all things law enforcement related. That means that we have to assume that Sarah knows what we're going to do next - even before we do. That's why taking me off the case now would be-"

"Predictable." The director finished. "Are trying to apply the chaos theory argument to Sarah Connor?"

"Exactly." Malcolm agreed. "In order to catch something that predicts in an unpredictable manner, you have to behave in a way that is also unpredictable."

"I'm intrigued." The director said. "But I didn't bring you into this office just to take you off the case. There's something else."

"What is it?"

"Almost overnight, the DOD has taken an extreme interest in the Sarah Connor case. They don't plan on interfering at the moment, but they've made very specific recommendations that we have to follow."

"Spooky." Malcolm replied. "What does the DOD want with Sarah?"

"It's not Sarah they're after anymore. It's her son."

Malcolm was immediately thrown off-guard. "Why?"

"He's been declared a person of _extreme_ interest to the United States government."

"So we're changing gears now to pursue a seventeen-year-old kid."

"Yes and no." The director said, filling one of his pristine glass cups with a pitcher of water and taking a minor sip. "You still need to find Sarah Connor, but now it's only to find the whereabouts of her son."

"I can do that. Are we still seeking prosecution?"

"Absolutely. But right now, the priority has been changed for the time being. She's a secondary concern now."

"I understand. But, sir, I have to ask the reasoning behind it. At least to better serve our friends at the DOD."

"Shut the door." The director said without an expression. Malcolm did so before returning to the front of the desk.

"Off the record," The director began. "I think John Connor is being poached."

"I don't understand." Malcolm said.

"I've seen some things over the years, Mal. Even though I'm just a to-the-bone FBI guy, I've seen guys in black suits come and go. But these guys, the guys who just sent this order... you don't want to know."

Malcolm puzzled his head slightly.

"They make people disappear." The director continued. "They make people die and come back to life. I think Mr. Connor is being primed for some sort of program, something nasty. He matched up with some profile they've been running called the "L Project". That's why you have to bring him in unharmed."

"He's just a kid." Malcolm protested. "Even the CIA doesn't consider someone until they're at least eighteen. I know he's good with computers, athletic, smart, but that's not enough."

"These are our orders, son." The director said, clearly just as disagreeable to the notion as Malcolm was. "But we still have to carry them out. Now get to it."

* * *

><p><strong>FBI SAFEHOUSE<strong>

James was busy on his laptop when he noticed the slumbering dragon known as Sarah Connor rear her head out of her bedroom.

"Well, good morning. I'd thought you'd never wake up."

"It seems I'm the life of the party, wherever I go. I think I was out for more than six hours." Sarah observed as she noted the dark sky outside.

"You definitely needed it. You feeling better?"

"A little bit. Thanks." Sarah said as she grabbed the pot away from the coffee maker and poured herself a fresh cup.

"I've got some bad news, I'm afraid. I did some digging." James said as he watched Sarah take a sip.

"What kind?"

"Finances. You let Cameron handle the family money these days, right?"

"That's correct." Sarah grunted. "She was always good with the numbers. We had a few investments that we made in addition to our diamond collection. Fake names, of course. But it helped."

"That might explain these transactions that were made the day before the incident at ZeiraCorp."

"What kind?" Sarah immediately became wide awake.

"Most of them didn't mean much. Some transactions were made while her and John were on the run, nothing special. Gas, supplies, etc. But there was one she made the day before your arrest. Does the name Henry Gilliam sound familiar?"

"It does. But he goes by the name 'Hypnotik' nowadays. He was a up-and-coming drug dealer when I knew him."

"'Knew him'? Was he one of your underground contacts?"

"No, god no. He did a nickel with me at Pascadero. He was originally busted for beating up on his girlfriend. But he had some connections in LA, enough to get a lawyer to make some BS insanity plea stick as opposed to ten years in prison."

"The transaction was made at his new club downtown, one he just purchased just as the city was about to close it down. TechNoir."

A shiver made its way up her spine. That was the place where she hid from the T-800 attack in 1984. When all the Sarah Connor in the greater LA area were being terminated one-by-one. The place where she met John's father, Kyle, for the first time. This couldn't be a coincidence... could it?

"You said TechNoir?" Sarah asked, almost unbelieving.

"Well, it's been renamed 'The Scarface Lounge' by the new owner, but yes. It caters to all of LA's up and coming scumbags. Drug-dealing or otherwise."

"What kind of transaction was made?"

"That's the thing. It doesn't make sense. The cover charge is twenty dollars. She dropped a thousand in the place. And it came from the main office of the building, credit charge. Clear as day. Almost like she wanted us to find it."

"Or maybe her night life is more interesting than we thought." Sarah muttered. "I have to go check it out. The Tin Miss likes to keep secrets. And it might have something to do with everything that's been going on."

"If you're going in, I don't think you'll have to deal with much law enforcement, but you'll be dancing up next to a bunch of wannabe gangsters looking for a Saturday night thrill."

"I'll be okay."

"Hynotik himself hasn't changed much over the years. African-American, five foot seven, muscular build, lusts after anything with breasts or dollar bills, and missing his right eye. Wears a fancy eyepatch to compensate. How exactly do you know him, if I might ask?"

"I took out his eye."

* * *

><p><strong>THE SCARFACE LOUNGE<strong>

The mediocre rap music was in full blast as Sarah approached the seedy dance club where she was almost maliciously gunned down nearly twenty-five years prior. Sarah continued to ponder Cameron's involvement in such a location. Was it supposed to mean something? Did she leave a clue or some sort? Was it a trap? Sarah couldn't tell either way. She knew that she had to find her answers inside. She put the earpiece connect to her cell phone on and dialed James. The former FBI agent was on her speed-dial, an achievement in and of itself. Probably the greatest achievement law enforcement ever achieved.

"Okay. I'm here." Sarah said when James finally picked up. She noted a group of drunk twenty-somethings stumble by her.

"Remember, it's a two floor building. Dancing on the bottom. Business at the top. The main office overlooks the dance floor, it should have glass windows on all sides." James said.

"Probably so he could spot for the police for when they come for him. This place is not very subtle." Sarah remarked.

"Not at all. Just get in and get out. You may have to catch up with your 'friend', but be warned: he has three bodyguards, but only two are on duty tonight."

"Wait, how do you know that? Where are you getting this information?"

"I Googled him. Turns out he has a Twitter account that he updates hourly. Sometimes he even updates what he had for dinner. The man sure thinks highly of himself."

"What the hell is a Twitter?" Sarah asked.

"Social network site. You should look into it sometime."

"Huh. Yeah, right."

Sarah made her way to the admission booth and unceremoniously dropped a twenty-dollar bill down and slipped inside. She was reminded briefly of her early days when she actually enjoyed this sort of scene, but right now all she could feel was an upcoming headache.

The place was crowded. People swarmed from every direction to get their groove on, cramming together in one big mass as it their life depended on it.

A slight vibration on her side indicated that James had sent her a text message. Sarah quickly flipped open her phone to find a picture of a large-set black man smiling at her. An accompany text read: MANNY, BODYGUARD #1. NEED HIS KEYCARD TO GET IN OFFICE. TRYING TO FIND A PIC OF #2.

Sarah continued to push past the stumbling crowd and took a seat near the bar. At least from here, she could get a better look at the place as a whole.

Aside from deducing that the direction the interior decoration had taken since the eighties was utter shit, Sarah scanned the crowd up and down looking for her new friend, Manny. After a minute or so, she found him descending the spiral staircase that led to the main office, keycard hanging around his neck - begging to be stolen.

Sarah was already moving back through the crowd in pursuit. She hoped to just do a quick bump and snatch as Manny walked about the dance floor, but a change of plans had to be made when Manny took a quick detour into the men's restroom.

The air was thick with the smell of cigarettes as Manny relieved himself at the urinal nearest the door. An abundance of sniffing was occurring in a nearby stall, probably a business-type getting a quick hit of coke before getting back to the action outside.

"Hello, Manny." A female voice said from behind. Sarah had pushed the door open so quietly that he hadn't even noticed.

"The fuc-"

Within a second, Sarah's hand slammed the back of the large man's head into the concrete wall in front of him. To his credit, Manny was fast to retaliate, but not fast enough. He turned to deliver a left hook at Sarah's cheek, but he only hit air as Sarah ducked kicked the man's knee out from under him.

Dazed, Manny struggled to get up again up was overcome by blackness when Sarah's boot-heel met with his nose.

The man in the stall finally caught wind of the struggle going on outside, and peered his head out to get a look. All he was the unconscious bodyguard, whose head was thoroughly planted in the urinal in front of him, the same one that had been there since he entered.

Sarah was already vapor when Manny's head came loose from the piss station and the rest of his unconscious figure hit the floor a second later.

Clutching the keycard vigorously in her bruised knuckles, Sarah began to ascend the stairs to the main office.

* * *

><p>Hynotik was bulletproof, inside and out. He climbed his way up from typical LA trash to cash king in the span of his thirty-three years. He started small - selling a dimebag here, stealing a stereo there, but it was when he finally synced up with LA's finest that business started booming. That's right, the LAPD themselves couldn't help but marvel at his talents as he passed in and out of their laughable justice system.<p>

Again, he started small. Strictly informant at first. But it was when he got noticed by the more... "flexible" of the desk sergeants that he made his mark in the world. He became the liaison overnight for anyone who needed a quick bribe or for evidence to go "missing". Soon, Hypnotik was going to houses, beating up crucial witnesses and planting evidence. The money couldn't stop coming in. It was so much that he had to do something with it.

After his stint in Pescadero State Hospital, he saw the light. Well, whatever light he could before that crazy bitch in the cell next to him tore his eye out with a spork from the cafetaria when he started to brag about his past deeds. Apparently she wasn't too thrilled with his association with LAPD, his criminal history, or both. But he didn't care anymore. He had more money than he knew what do with. He couldn't buy a new eye, but he could buy everything else. And the thick eye patch he wore over his grievous injury only heightened his credibility on the street.

He bought out the ailing TechNoir and started going legitimate... or so he thought. Many up-and-comers still sought his tutelage, offered him work in other areas other than his domestic dance and restaurant operations. How could he resist? The LAPD had him covered. And he always looked for ways to get in closer with the local crime lords as well.

Even now, as he lay naked in the bathtub he had installed in his lavishly constructed office, he felt invincible.

But he wasn't.

He was so interested in playing with the bubbles in his tub, relishing in his own worldly status, that he didn't notice the pair of hands as they took hold on both his shoulders and push him vigorously underwater.

Sarah held Hypnotik underwater for a good thirty seconds before letting him surface. As he squirmed and gasped, he couldn't make out who his attacker was right away, but he did notice the knife planted firmly on his Adam's apple.

"Remember me?" Sarah growled.

"You! You crazy bitch! I'll have you-" Hypnotik shot back before being forced under again, splashing Sarah's leather jacket as he struggled against her insanely strong grip.

Once he surfaced again, he was a little bit more cooperative. "What do you want?" He gasped.

"There was a girl that came in here a week-and-a-half ago. She gave you over a thousand dollars. Why?"

"Girl? I know a lot of girls. In case you can't tell, I got a lot of-" Under again. More squirming. Sarah was hoping this would lead to some progress sometime in the near future.

"Do you want me to take your other eye?" Sarah menaced as she focused the knife on his left eye.

"Are you talking about that Baum girl? Is that it?" Hypnotik gasped.

"What did you do?"

"A quick hit and run job. On some house in the suburbs. No, no!" Hynotik shreiked as the blade came closer.

"What kind of job was it?"

"Some sort of safehouse for a major corporation. Zeira-something. She wanted us to scope it out, maybe rob it later. I thought it was her old boyfriend's place or something and she wanted some sort of payback. I haven't heard back from her yet."

"ZeiraCorp?"

"Yeah, that's it. Sweet lady, please let me go!"

"Why did she choose you?"

"Look, the girl was really weird. Freakishly strong, just like you. She said she needed to protect someone, her current boyfriend or something. Needed to keep him in the dark."

"So she wasn't going alone after all... Is there anything else that you need to tell me?"

"She was real quiet, but she paid cash. I sent two of my boys to do what she asked, but we didn't turn up anything."

"What's the address?"

"It's over there. On the whiteboard. Let me go, you crazy bitch!"

With a quick whip from her Glock, the aspiring kingpin of LA slumped down quietly back in his tub. He would have a nasty bump on his head, but he would live.

Sarah approached the whiteboard and casually took a picture at the only childish scribbling that resembled an address. She quickly sent it to James, who responded a minute later.

"RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. NO KNOWN OWNER. NO PAYMENT HISTORY. PERFECT FOR A SAFEHOUSE OR BLACKSITE." The text read.

_What was Cameron up to? _Sarah wondered. She closed her eyes and prayed for a moment that nothing drastic had befallen her son in her absence. If Cameron wasn't playing a straight game, Sarah would have her dismantled and burned. Bolt for bolt.

After a moment, Sarah exited the office just as quietly as she entered.

As she descended the stairs, she met a thin man holding a pizza box, who looked very unamused at her presence.

"Who the hell are you?" said the man who Sarah made as the second bodyguard. "What were you doing up there?"

Sarah smiled innocently. "Just finished up with the boss man. Did him in the bathtub. I'd let him rest for now, if I were you."

"Damn girl." The man took on an playful tone as he reached into his pockets. "They sure don't make your type anymore. Go on and get out of here before I start getting you some more work." He handed Sarah a few hundred dollar bills. "Keep the change."

"Thank you." Sarah replied.

And without throwing another punch or drowning another thug for the evening, Sarah smiled and quickly slipped back out to the dance floor, eventually making it out the door where she got in.

* * *

><p>She should've seen the blue and red lights. Fuck, she should've seen the goddamn red and blue lights coming from a mile away. No sooner than she shut the front door when she was greeted by two dozen police uniforms, complete with two SWAT snipers drawing red dots on her leather jacket from afar.<p>

"Freeze! Hands in the air!" Sarah made out the fancy agent she tangoed with the night before yelling to her. She was stupid. She should've been more careful, galactic death trigger or no.

Sarah counted a dozen automatic weapons, a few odd nine-millimeters. There was no way she could run without turning into swiss cheese instantly. She could tell after last night's disaster that they were no longer playing around.

"Do as he says, Sarah." James said through Sarah's earpiece.

"James, what the hell is going on." Sarah whispered.

"I don't know. But I'll see what I can do on my end. We'll figure it out. This isn't the end of the story."

Malcolm Young approached Sarah as she dropped to her knees and placed her hands on the back of her head. She knew the routine by heart at this point.

"Hypnotik, huh? That's the lowlife you'd go to when everyone in California is looking for you?" Malcolm said as he slapped the cuffs gently on Sarah's wrists. "Took some effort, but we finally programmed the street cameras outside to look for you George Orwell style. Facial recognition at its finest. Looking near anyone else who's made contact with you in the past twenty years."

"Since when did they send the fancy stuff after me?" Sarah snarked as Malcolm clipped off the receiver from her ear.

"Just be glad that I haven't had you tazed and tackled by now. I'd like to think we're beyond that at this point." Malcolm said calmly. If Sarah could tell anything about this man whom she'd knocked unconscious the night prior, it was that there was a degree of professional respect in his demeanor this time.

"What happens now?" Sarah asked, hiding her frustration. Just across the street, two teenagers began filming her arrest through their cell phones, clearly waiting to upload it to YouTube as soon as possible.

"We're going to take a better look at that vault you blew up last night. The politician you killed. And the other things that you've accomplished in your long-standing criminal career. For the next forty-eight hours, I expect you to spend most of it being questioned by men higher than my pay grade."

"Lucky me."

"You've made a lot of people very angry these past few years, Sarah." Malcolm whispered as he handed her off to two heavily decked out SWAT members. "Now let's get going. I think you'll like where they're sending you."

* * *

><p><strong>This is probably the last chapter in the story's current state. The pace will change and the one-character per chapter format will probably be done away with. Sarah, John, and Cameron will be sharing chapters from now on. The next chapter is the big one, one of the reasons I wrote the story to begin with. A LOT of answers are coming out and it's probably going to be the longest I've written to date. And it will also be among the darker parts of the story, so I'm excited to see things unfold. I'm a firm believer that things will always get worse before they get better, and this will be just that. Sarah's about to get a curveball from hell and John and Cameron's relationship is going to become a lot more complex. Wish me luck!<strong>


	19. The Connor Legacy, Part I

_"And so, on this day of April fifth, we sentence twenty-two women to death by way of hanging. Their crimes, witchcraft in nature will no longer be tolerated in this fine state of Massachusetts."_

_The bearded man took his eyes to the growing crowd as he met eyes with several of the onlookers. As if looking for any sort of opposition to his claims. There was none. The man had much political might on his side, along with a vast fortune he inherited from his father. And his reputation for corruption and villainy were almost common-knowledge among the townsfolk. Yet when the trials began, the son of privilege made it his personal crusade to see so many innocent women put to death._

_"Are there any last words among the condemned?"_

_Many of the women shuttered in terror, shedding many tears as their family and friends were likely among the crowd that now bear witness to their deaths. Yet one woman, a woman of significant years, even with her hands bound along the thick rope around her neck would not falter in such circumstance._

_"Why would you choose to condemn these innocent women to death?" She raged as the crowd grew still. "You men and your greed! It will be your undoing!"_

_The man smirked and readdressed the crowd. "Your evil ways will fool no one, this life or the next! Get ready to release on my command!"_

_"You will pay dearly for what you've done! You think your father's money will save you! You think what you're doing will grant you more power and privilege!"_

_"Ready!" The man motioned toward the executioner._

_With all the venom in her soul, the woman shrieked out to her accuser. "I put a curse on you, William Connor!" She screamed. "A curse on you, and all of your **kin**!"_

_There was utter silence for a moment. For the next there was the sound of a floor panel giving way, along with twenty-two necks breaking in unison. The taint left on the town of Salem would never be undone. This also marks the last public appearance of Connor, who later married a daughter in the famous Wesley family up north and later fathered four children, three of them stillborn._

_- James Clarkson, "An American Tragedy Revisited: The History of the Salem Witch Trials", 1992_

* * *

><p>John remembered the name Alexander more prominently when he was with his mother. Most kids grew up learning very basic childhood stories: "The Three Little Pigs", "Hansel and Gretel", "The Tortoise and the Hare"... but for John, it was always tales of war. And one of his favorites was the tragedy of Alexander the Great, so it became a weekly habit for Sarah to tell the story until he grew out of it around seven.<p>

"What was the lesson that came with the way that Alexander lived?" Sarah would always ask after finishing the story.

"That power corrupts absolutely!" A young and eager John would always answer. "And that the welfare of your soldiers and the citizens they serve is more important than the pride of one man!"

It was only years later that John derived more lessons from the study of such a leader. From the beginning, he was born and bred to great things. A man with something to prove since birth. He sought out the personal tutelage of Aristotle (who would also become a favorite of John's) and immersed himself completely in the art and science of war. He won many victories, and conquered many nations on his quest for glory. But ultimately, the adverse effects of such endeavors came at a cost.

Alexander the Great's personal life proved to feel the brunt of such a lifestyle. By the time he died of a fever in 323 BC, he amassed many enemies and alienated those closest to him. It had long been suspected that he had been poisoned, but nothing could be proven. Without him, stability crumbled and his empire divided itself among petty squabbles just as quickly as it was put together by force.

It was a powerful lesson for John, and he brought it to the forefront of his thoughts as he climbed over another hill and neared the rendezvous point where Danny Dyson waited. Century was in full view. As John quickly knelt down next to him and gently nudged him in the shoulder as he peered through his binoculars.

"Well, you look like shit." Danny remarked as he turned to John.

"I made it." John said, breathlessly. Behind him, Cameron quietly ducked and knelt next to the two. "What have we got?"

"Take a look." Danny replied as he handed John the binoculars.

John immediately glued his eyes into the ports and began scanning the multilayered facility.

"Notice anything?" Danny said after a few moments.

John gulped as he began drawing his own conclusions, but visibility was tricky even with the night vision setting turned on. "There's no terminators anywhere." He said. "And there appears to be people with high-powered weapons patrolling around the roof. Are they Resistance?"

"No. There's no insignia anywhere. Their clothing appears to be custom made... and clean." Danny said as he gripped his ear. "Something is wrong here. Way wrong. We need to abort."

John wasn't far from the same train of thought. "Cameron, has Century always been guarded by humans?"

"No. Security was left to terminators and a variety of circuited systems that runs automatically. Century was always controlled by Skynet. Always." Cameron replied.

"Your new friend isn't the only turncoat, it looks like." Danny said as he gripped his ear tighter. John noticed this again before recalling his fall at Project Leviathan as the result of the tracer he implanted in himself.

"Are you talking to someone?" John asked.

Danny ignored him as he continued gripping his ear.

"Who are you talking to?" John said even louder he put down the binoculars.

"Nothing. It's one of my contacts in 2009." Danny replied.

"Your 'contacts'?" John asked. "What are you talking about?"

"He's a friend." Danny remarked dryly. "And so am I. Trust me."

Cameron watched the exchange and recalled her own little friend in a different timeline. But she hadn't been in contact since Azrael's attack.

"Don't play games with me, Danny."

"I'm not... I'm not."

"John." Cameron said as John was about to press further. "We need to be at the drop-off point in eighteen minutes."

John left out a small huff as he eyed Danny one more time. "Alright, let's go."

* * *

><p>Sarah was dreaming, or at least she thought she was. She could feel her body toil and rumble along with the moving vehicle she was in. Her hands were bound, and she couldn't tell if she was alone because the black hood that was placed on her head prevented her from seeing anything.<p>

She already spent the last hour trying to struggle against her restraints, but even she knew there was no way out of this one.

_"Sarah, Sarah. Wake up, Sarah."_

Sarah snapped back to reality as she heard the voice, but it wasn't near her. It sounded more like it was coming from a far-off distance. She toiled with the notion that once again that she was going crazy, that maybe there was another voice like Charley Dixon's floating around in her subconscious. But even Charley hadn't reared his head out lately to bother her.

"Who is this?" It was only after asking the question that Sarah remembered the implanted device she received when Governor Wyman was murdered.

_"The who does not matter. Only the why."_

"The 'why'? What 'why'?" Sarah realized that she must've looked utterly ridiculous saying these things to no one with a black hood over her head.

_"And the where."_

"What are you talking about?"

"The where is when. The where is where all the answers you seek."

"What's the where?"

_"To the years before. Back when things were uncertain. Where hopes and dreams died. Don't try to find me, I'll find you."_

* * *

><p><strong>PESCADERO MENTAL HOSPITAL<strong>

It had been over a decade since Sarah was escorted to the front doors of the mental facility where the state kept her under their ward. Back then, it was only handcuffs and patrolmen. It was a different story now.

With a straightjacket blocking her every movement, and a restraining facemask that would make Hannibal Lecter jealous, she was wheeled dispassionately into her old home by two men clad in black suits. Behind her, Malcolm Young met with an orderly with a clipboard and eagerly put a signature to it.

Sarah could only say one thing. "Really? This isn't even maximum security. I'm insulted."

"I've got some good news and some bad news, Ms. Connor." Malcolm said, readjusting his tie as he stood in front of Sarah. "The good news is that you're officially done with me."

"Sadness." Sarah quirked sarcastically. Her facemask did a good job in making the agent uneasy. She liked that.

"The bad news," Malcolm continued. "is that you've been declared an enemy combatant by the United States government. We're handing you off to private security firm for the time being. This one was real eager to get the contract so be nice to them."

Sarah already knew the answer to this question. "Kaliba?"

"Yeah, that's right." Malcolm said, trying to remain expressionless.

"That doesn't explain why you're putting me back in a nuthouse."

"It's a special request they made. They're going to be asking you a lot of questions, so I think they think this is the best place to break you."

"Usually, that's the sort of statement you keep to yourself." Sarah replied as she eyed a bunch of patients in the lunch hall pressing their faces against the glass window, some with their tongues out. She had to laugh a little bit.

"Usually, that's right." Malcolm said as he walked in the other direction. "But I'm not invited to this particular party. I packaged you, someone else gets to do the unwrapping. I'll be seeing you around, Sarah. Good luck."

The black suits started wheeling her away again. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone very familiar wave to her. Old Man Ironworks, a very tall, and very old, black man who'd been at Pascadero longer than Sarah ever had shot her a weak smile as he took another spoonful of yogurt into his mouth.

If she didn't have twenty pounds of restraining equipment to deal with, she would've waved back. Instead, she gave him a curt nod.

_It's good to be home_.

* * *

><p>It was four miles away from where John, Cameron, and Danny performed their recon that the rally point was set to meet. As the trio approached, John flashed his red lens flashlight three times in quick succession. Within seconds, a small squad of rose from the dirt and decayed bushes nearby. They were so masterfully camouflaged with their environment that John had no choice but to beam with excitement.<p>

This was getting real.

John made out the old, tired form of the Archivist among the ones who rose from the dirt. Even though he claimed to be an academic of sorts, the dirt and paint on his face spoke otherwise. He was soldier again, shedding years off his attitude in an instant. He jogged as stealthily as possible and took a knee near John and Cameron.

"Mr. Connor, this is Kishin." The Archivist motioned to a more youthful man in his late-twenties. "He's your commander for this operation."

John and Kishin immediately shook hands. He was surprised he didn't meet him beforehand.

"I decided this would be best left to someone with more youthful vigor. I've trained him his entire life and now he trains me. He's a sponge, John. He knows how to engage the machines, even on their own territory."

"It's an honor." Kishin said. "Our lives are at your command."

"I understand. Thank you. But let's try and refrain from casualties." John replied as he turned to the Archivist. "How is the perimeter holding up?"

"We got men on all sides. We got seventy-five strong along with five medics. Our sniper teams are reporting humans with weapons walking around on the roof of the facility." The Archivist reported.

"I know. We say them too." John said. "We still need to go in there. For now, we'll assume they're hostiles."

"You said the Resistance will give us some backup as well?"

"Yeah. They should be here any second."

"Major Bedell? It's been a while since I've seen him... Well, a different Bedell. Is it true that you threatened to break his neck?"

"I like to think of it as aggressive diplomacy."

"That's two times now that you've done that."

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah... But that's a story for another time. Don't worry about it for now. Sometimes you have to keep him in line like that."

"Movement." Kishin interrupted. "From the East."

Within seconds, the soldiers turned invisible in the dirt and shrub. John and Cameron darted to a nearby hill and entered a low crawl to observe. Four hundred meters away, John saw the six humvees pull up in the distance, headlights off - a standard operating procedure for night time field work.

John flashed his light three more times. Within seconds, the vehicles dismounted and thirty-plus men formed a defensive perimeter around the vehicles. John found Major Martin Bedell whispering orders in the center and lightly jogged over to meet him, Kishin was not far behind.

"There you are." Bedell said. "We're going to set up an impromptu base here for the time being. These are all the men I could spare without comprising base security."

"This is Kishin." John made a similar introduction for the soldier. "He's the commander for the Leviathan forces. He'll be working with you."

"I hope your men are good to go here, because this already reckless as shit. But, for whatever reason, the big wigs in upper command just signed off on this. Century is going down tonight, like it or not."

John nodded as Kishin pulled out a blueprint of the area around them.

"There's a catch though." Martin said. "You've just been upgraded to 'shoot on sight' orders."

A small knot began to form in John's stomach. "What do you want to do about that?"

"But I don't see a John Connor out here with us right now, and I've instructed my men to be blind in that aspect too. We'll do this together, John. But as soon as the dust settles, you need to go back where you came from." Martin transitioned his eyes from John's and onto the map in front of him.

A low rumbling overtook John's attention. "What's that noise?"

"Oh, I pulled us an ace." Martin said. "This will be our mobile command center for the time being. It's also a tank."

The low rumbling grew louder as John made out the hull of the Abrams tank. His jaw dropped as Cameron looked at the large machine in wonder.

"It's been heavily modified." The voice of Derek Reese echoed as he and Kyle climbed out of the towering monstrosity's main hatches. "We took several components from HKs that we shot down and upgraded its speed, targeting capacity, and interior space. It can hold ten people, as opposed to four and can go upwards of seventy miles an hour on a good day. Only one of its kind, really. We found it in a National Guard armory a few years ago and been playing with it since."

"Jesus." John said in disbelief.

"If we need to breach Century, this baby will do the trick." Kyle added. "It's also got all the command instruments you need to control the operation."

"Alright, I can see this happening in one of two ways." Martin said aloud and John returned his attention to the map. "A frontal assault on their main bay would be a key entry point, but it's exposes up to upward lines of fire - and that's assuming that we're just dealing with those joes up top and not any gun placements nearby. And then there's the rear where they conduct all their supply line operations. If we stick it in their ass there, it could work to our advantage. But I think it's a longer route to get to the key demolition points where we're going to pack in our C4."

"There's one other option." Kishin added. "We conducted some scans earlier, there is still a network of pipelines that have appeared dormant at this time of night. We found at least two. If we do an upward breach with explosives, we could establish a prominent foothold and-"

"Gut the place out." Martin ended the statement. "But there's too many unknown factors at work in that option."

"True." Kishin said. John didn't even see Catherine Weaver join their little huddle. She just suddenly appeared next to him, sporting a supportive smile. _This needs to stop surprising me_. John made a mental note.

"We have about another hour before we're detected by one of the HK scans in this area. We have a little bit more time to weigh the options. In the mean time, Connor, we need to talk." Bedell motioned John to follow him to the tank.

"This is compact Kevlar vest. Put it on under your sweater. It won't stop anything at close range, but it'll help." John did as instructed. When he was finished, he Bedell motioned him to follow further outside the perimeter, just out of earshot of anyone else.

"Okay, we have a few minutes, I need to our vested interest in bring down this facility."

_"Target acquired."_

"It's... complicated." John said in all honesty.

"Uncomplicate it."

_"Another person is with him, proceed? Standby."_

An aching feeling suddenly gripped John's forethoughts as he looked around nervously. He felt... weird. The type of weird that usually preceded something horrible.

"We should... we should get back." John said as he eyed the defensive perimeter they were clearly outside of. _All it takes a second of carelessness to create a world of hurt_, Sarah had taught him. This was one of those situations.

"No. We have time." Martin said, crossing his arms.

_"Subjects are talking. Eyes on. Do we have a clear path to base? Standby."_

"No, no..." John said, hair standing up. He was being watched. Years of dodging the LAPD were coming back to his memory. He could feel someone looking at him through a sniper scope. He was stupid. How could he let this happen? "Whatever you do, don't move."

"What?" Bedell bulked, looking around cautiously.

_"Take them."_

"When I say 'run', we need to get everyone on high alert. We need to call this off. It's a tr-"

John felt a light prick on his neck. He tried to feel the point of contact, but his hand was already numb. Across from him, Bedell also clawed uselessly at a small syringe-type capsule sticking out of his neck. John tried to speak, but his knees already buckled underneath him. The last thing he remembered was someone dragging him away... and red eyes.

* * *

><p>The water hit Sarah's face head on. Strapped down on a cold metal table and with a washcloth on her mouth, Sarah struggled to breath as water constantly pounded her face from where it left the container. She flailed with each new liter that was poured. They allowed her a few seconds to cough out her lungs before one of the men pressed down hard on her throat and resumed the downpour.<p>

Sarah could endure any kind of pain, but water boarding was new to her. It caught her completely off guard. Over the years, she was spoiled with just the basics - guns, the occasional nightstick, but she was in a whole 'nother ballpark this time.

"Make this easy on yourself, Sarah." A man who identified himself as Joines spoke as Sarah's suffering continued. "Tell us where the boy is."

The water boarding stopped for a brief instant, during which Sarah resumed her coughing.

"The man is talking to you!" Sarah felt a hand grab her hair, lifting her head from the table. Sarah couldn't talk even if she wanted to, but that didn't stop the bulky man from delivering a large slap across her face. Sarah barely had time to register the first one before a second slap erupted.

"I... I don't know." Sarah whimpered.

"Enough. Continue." Joines said.

The bulky man released Sarah's hair and spat on her face in disgust as he grabbed a fresh liter of water. Sarah tried to find a place to go in her mind, but she knew that she was breaking. The water entered her lungs again and she squirmed uselessly at the torture.

"You killed a future governor, Ms. Connor. The only reason we're doing this is because of executive privelage. The President himself signed off on it." Joines got in real close to Sarah's face to give her a devilish grin. "Tell us where John is, and this will stop."

After another twenty minutes, Sarah was given a chance to answer again.

"Where is he?" Joines asked again as Sarah eyed his muscular accomplice balling up his fist.

"He's... he's gone. He's not... not coming back." Sarah choked out.

The muscled man was poised to deliver a hearty blow to Sarah's face when a large buzzing noise echoed throughout the room. A moment later, Sarah made out the figure of Malcolm Young as closed the large door behind him.

"This interrogation is over." Malcolm said, much to the dismay of Joines. "This needs to stop, now."

"Listen, buddy. You don't belong here anymore. The FBI gave us authority as long as we get the results. That's the deal. We own Pascadero, and we got the orders to prove it."

"I know. But Sarah's bloodwork just came back and landed on my desk. Take a look." Malcolm brandished a piece of paper from his jacket pocket which Joines immediately snatched up.

"You've got to be kidding me." Joines said as he skimmed through it.

"I'm not. It surprised me too."

"How in the hell are we going to do this now?"

"I don't know. But we have to play it safe for now. I'll make some calls and get back to you in the morning." Malcolm said as he strolled near Sarah. "But first, I have some grievances I'd like to share with Sarah before I go. Are there any cameras in here?"

"Of course not."

"Good. Give me the room for a minute. I'll meet you outside." Malcolm said as loosened his tie and gave them the impression that was he going to do something unsavorty.

"Okay. But you can't be too rough with her."

"I know." Malcolm said as he waited for the two to leave. It was only then he brought his face real close to Sarah's.

_"I taped a knife to the bottom of your bed."_ He whispered. _"They've got twenty men on site, automated security."_

_"Why are you helping me?" _Sarah gasped out.

_"I don't believe in any machine uprisings, messiahs, or anything like that. I do believe that there's more to Wyman's death than they're letting on - I've seen the forensics. And I believe that if you stay here, they will chop you up into little pieces and throw you in the river to cover it up."_

_"But-"_

_"If I wasn't married, if I didn't have a little girl of my own... this would be a different story. You're not my problem anymore, I've bought you a little time. Get the hell out of Los Angeles tonight and don't look back."_

* * *

><p>Cameron walked around relentlessly, John had been missing for fifteen minutes and thirteen seconds now. And counting.<p>

"Where's John?" Cameron barked at a startled Derek Reese as he was issuing orders to his subordinates.

"He was with the Major, last I saw him." Derek replied. "But we can't find him either."

"Lieutenant Reese. I found something." Kishin interrupted, holding a pair of dirty dog tags. "I found these in the dirt, fifty meters from the south side of our perimeter."

Kishin dropped them in Derek's hand, revealing the name of Martin Bedell, his blood type, and religious preference. "We have to assume that they took John with him as well. We need to go in now."

* * *

><p><strong>CENTURY - CENTRAL CONTROL CENTER "HIVEMIND"<strong>

Murmurs... and then voices. Angry voices.

"Hello, Martin." A voice dripping with dread echoed in the black. John knew it was Alexander's.

John was still shaking off the grogginess when he realized that he was tied town to some sort of metal pillar of some kind, hands bound in the back of it. He was conscious, but he dared not open his eyes. Not yet at least. If they hadn't kill him yet, then he might have an advantage by playing possum.

"Alex..." Martin croaked.

"Where is the Engineer?" John recognized the neutral tone of Azrael.

"He doesn't know anything." Alexander interrupted. "Kill him."

"No, no! Alex, talk to me! We can-" John was overcome with dread as Martin's sentence was cut short with the sound of several wet stabbing motions, weak voice croaks, followed by a loud thunderous CRACK.

John heard a crashing noise nearby, and opened his eyes slowly to see the lifeless body of Martin Bedell staring up at him, his neck completely inverted and dilated pupils staring in John's direction.

"I already know you're awake, John." Alexander said as John restrained himself from screaming out. A sudden electric shock gripped his entire body.

John immediately opened his eyes and glared at Alexander with all of his being. The pale, bar-coded young man stared back at him.

"I take it you don't know who the Engineer is either." Alexander said, knowingly. He motioned to Azrael, who was still damaged from when Cameron had fought with him. "Get rid of him." He pointed to Bedell's body.

"Don't touch him!" John yelled, tears flowing from both eyes. But it didn't deter the T-888 as he grabbed one of Martin's mangled legs and dragged him out of the room.

John only continued glaring. "Why would you do something like that?"

"That man left me to die years ago. Be glad that I made it fast."

"What the hell are you?" John yelled.

Alexander gave a coy smile to John as Azrael reentered the room. "I am the... solution."

"Solution?" John scoffed, still fuming. "Solution to what?"

"Do you know what the 'L Project' is?" Alexander asked. "I assume that you knew something when you broke into Screaming Eagle. Tracking you is like tracking a T-Rex these days. Not very subtle."

John remained silent.

"We have a few minutes. It's not related to your little Leviathan thing, for starters. It's actually something else... something that came way before my time at least. I don't know much about it. Other than you were the original test subject for it."

John's eyebrows crossed. Alexander had his full attention now.

"It came down from some order that was given before the war broke out. And the weird thing is... is that it is exclusive to this timeline. It never appeared it any other sort of iteration."

"Iteration?" John asked.

"You don't know do you?" Alexander asked. John retained his silence.

Alexander turned around to face the window that overlooked the prison floors below. "Let me tell you a story. Sometime, a long time ago there was a program called Skynet. It became self-aware, killing billions of people, and sought utter constitution of the world."

"Neat story." John said sarcastically. "But I've already heard this one."

"It failed miserably. There was a man who stood out amongst the humans and saw through every scheme that Skynet planned, everything they planned - he countered. It was like he was almost one of them. He made it look so easy. But for Skynet... only through experiencing failure were they able to create something that could change everything. To go back and right their wrongs. Time travel."

"You're boring me." John snarled again.

"But you don't know what happened next. The goal of time displacement was to send something back, but that very first time when it was discovered... it was said that something came out of that first bubble they tried to form."

"What do you mean?"

"You can tear a whole into time and space without experiencing any consequences. That very first time... the man, the _being_, destroyed everything immediately. Leaving not a trace of that timeline. However, it happened again in another timeline. Skynet is born, starts a war, and invents time travel. And again, this being awoke again and wiped the entire slate clean again. Then it happened again, and again, making the being angrier each time.

Eventually, he accepted the fact that man and machine were destined to do battle with one another time and again no matter how many times he stopped them... so he devised a system. In each iteration of time travel, he noted the correlations before wiping them clean. In order for time travel to exist, a man named John Connor must lead humanity's campaign against Skynet, push it to the brink of innovation. This is the base of that system. If John Connor existed in this capacity, and Skynet was reigning, then that timeline would be subject to deletion. Otherwise, it was allowed to continue its course harmlessly. There was no deviation from this schedule. It continued like this for a while.

But the being, having been awoken for so long, became fascinated in our struggle... man and machine. So he made an alteration, a wager if you would, between the two powers. Allowed time travel to continue between two realities so that players could be sent back and change the fate. Should Skynet win and/or succeed in killing John Connor before the war, then the timeline would be deleted instantly. Should John Connor win and defeat the machines, it would reach the same fate soon after. Point for the humans. And a new game begins."

"Bullshit." John said. "You're making it up. How the hell would we be here right now if that were true?"

"I'll hand it to your little machine friend." Alexander remarked. "She tripped the system by sending you forward from 1999 to 2007, took advantage of a glitch that was unforeseen until now. But this second time to 2027... the system readjusted itself by then. How it works, normally, is that once John Connor goes missing, Protocol 318 is issued for both sides, Resistance and Skynet. If they can't provide proof of life after a certain amount of time, then... the game starts over. That's the dilemma your current timeline is facing."

"Are you telling me this has gone one for hundreds of years?" John screamed.

"Millions, John. Millions of years."

"But why not this one?" John countered. "If I'm part of an elaborate system, then why won't this timeline be affected?"

"That's the question we're trying to answer." Alexander said dryly. "This T-888 over here, Azrael, comes from a century ahead of ours. Another world you created through your recklessness. He was sent back to protect me so that we can sort this whole mess out. This whole world we live and breathe in right now is an anomaly. We don't know what's going to happen next."

Something kept bothering John, even as he listen to Alexander's tale. Something about his features... he knew him... From somewhere. If he was in command of Skynet, John had to keep him busy for the upcoming strike.

"So how does this relate to the 'L Project'?" John asked.

"The L Project was what brought me here. Before, I was a sewer rat turned soldier. Fresh meat for the grinder. But eventually, Skynet developed an interest in me. Major Bedell was just a Captain back then, but he recovered the intel from the various raids he performed. Eventually, he uncovered the L Project among the servers when he assumed command of Screaming Eagle. And the correlations between Skynet's plans for me and the L Project matched up perfectly. The profiles were one and the same. Skynet was aware that its current strategies were falling short of expectations... so they needed a more human touch. Bedell saw an opportunity to send me in as a sleeper agent, posing as a Grey, so I took it. Unlike you, I was expendable. Ready to die so that maybe a brighter day will come for others. But that was a long time ago."

"And that's how you assumed command of Century." John concluded. "But why are you using humans?"

"Another scheme that Azrael and I started here. Why torture and kill... when you can recruit. Everyone has a breaking point. Within a few weeks of carefully placed incentives... You can make anyone fight for anything." Alexander said, voice dripping with a little dread. "I'm being tailor-made to be the John Connor of the Skynet realm. Right now, I have command of a small prison. But later on... I get the whole deal. That's the plan."

So most of the security they would be dealing with would be human... It unsettled John. But at the very least they would be easier than dealing with machine-dominated security.

"So you gave up everything and joined Skynet." John probed again. _Where did he know him from? _The something hit his memory.

_**"She's lost weight."**_

"It wasn't easy, at first. I made friends. Had what I thought was family. And you can't really walk into a Skynet facility and fill out an application. I had to be tortured... a lot. They had to break me down first. Had to cling to a few false hopes to make it through." Alexander, rubbed his pale bare-coded flesh. "And one of them was you, _Johnny_."

_**"It's okay, Johnny... It's me."**_

John's face twitched.

_No, no... that can't be right. Can it?_

"You see, with you, I at least have a starting point. Even though you started this mess, I can try to fix it. That's my role here. Just like your role is in this game."

"Are you sure? It sounds to me like you're just using any old excuse to try and topple over the Resistance." John said. "I'm not buying a thing you're saying.

"Believe what you want. All you need to know about me is that I'm resourceful."

"Yeah, you're pretty resourceful all right... for a **Connor**."

Alexander halted his movements entirely. And then everything clicked into place. Alexander Connor turned around slowly to face his brother face-to-face, clearly not expecting John to reach that conclusion so soon.

"That night at the lighthouse... She never lost weight to cancer. She was pregnant." John laughed to himself. "That at least answers the question of where you got your information. And why Skynet sought you out."

"This is my role." Alexander remarked. "Nothing else."

"Yeah, but you're just the leftovers for when I was gone. They wanted me all along."

"You can try to get me angry, Johnny. But it won't work. I'm in control now." Alexander said as he pushed a button on a remote. One of the monitors behind him immediately displayed a camera feed of Allison Young.

"You just don't see the big picture, do you? You didn't check the facts, you didn't ask the questions, and..."

"You didn't think I could get through these restraints."

Without warning, John ripped the ties that he'd been carefully eroding against the steel pillar since their conversation began and made a valiant charge toward his brother.

Alexander wasn't ready, and John's power sent both of them careening out of the window before Azrael could react.

* * *

><p>Sarah awoke with a cold sweat. Really, she was surprised that she was asleep at all. She hadn't planned on it. But once she was tied down, her body just shut down with it.<p>

Her new cell was devoid of anything. A window, a table, color... Aside from that, it was like the old days. Strapped to her bed in every way possible. Three foot steel door in front of her. But something was different. The door was creaking open slowly.

Sarah watched nervously as a tall figure with good posture slowly slipped into the room. As soon as the glare from the hallway light freed up Sarah's vision.

Old Man Ironworks stood over Sarah as she fumbled against her restraints.

"How the hell did you get out of your cell?" Sarah asked. "And how did you get in here?"

"I've known these locks for a while, Sarah." Ironworks replied.

Ironworks had been one of the few that Sarah spoke to back when she was incarcerated. Sarah was pretty sure that Ironworks wasn't even his real name, and she never knew his reason for being there other than his genuinely curious nature. But he always watched out for her. When she got into her many brawls in the cafeteria or hallway, he would be the first to try and break it up or hop in to help her. He had to be nearing seventy years old, but he could still hold his own when he needed to. They developed a bond over the years. She told him about John, about Judgment Day, the machines, and he always listened - never disbelieving her for a second.

And now he stood over her at three o'clock in the morning. He took out a pin and began picking every one of Sarah's restraints, clicking them off one-by-one.

"How the hell do you know how to do that?" Sarah demanded.

"These are nothing but a minor complication. I know the real challenges when I see them, Sarah. Just like you."

The tone of Ironworks' voice sounded too familiar. And then Sarah placed it as the voice in her ear on the way to Pascadero.

"You were the one who was talking to me." Sarah said as Ironworks undid her final buckle.

"Indeed I was." Ironworks replied cryptically.

"Who are you?" Sarah asked, inching for the knife under the bed.

"Who is anyone? I've had many names over the years."

"I know one already. Tell me another."

"Gosh, that was such a long time ago..." Ironworks scratched his head. "I'm not so sure."

"Get sure. Quickly."

"Well, when I was first sent back. I took the name Chester. James Chester. And then during the eighties..."

"You were sent back... from the future?"

"Yes... or is it the past now? It's all so relative."

"Stop screwing with me. Who are you and why have you been watching me for so long?"

"The food here is good, the AC works, actually get some decent cable... but really, in all honesty, it's a favor a great friend of mine asked of me a long time ago. A man named John Connor."

"J-John?" Sarah stuttered.

"Asked me to promise him that when my role is complete that I could watch over you when you needed it the most."

"Role? What role?"

"See, that's where the names get all confusing. But back then, way back then, I was known simply as a title. A rather boring one at that. Something along the lines of 'The Engineer.'"

"You're the Engineer?" Sarah asked bewildered. "You're the one who designed the vault we blew in 1999?"

"And the one you recently visited... the one you blew up while running from the LAPD. It's okay, I'm not angry."

"You have a lot of explaining to do."

"And you have a lot of listening to do." Ironworks replied with a fatherly smile. "But first, we must reach a better plane to further our enlightenment. It is not safe here."

"Agreed." Sarah said as she got up and peered out the door. "But if your name isn't Ironworks, what am I going to call you?"

"Call me as your son did, I suppose." Ironworks said. "Call me Danny... Danny Dyson."

* * *

><p><strong>CENTURY - SEDIMENT POOL<strong>

John and Alexander crashed hard onto the ground below, joined with a million fibers of broken glass. John was the first to get on his feet, delivering a quick kick to Alexander's face as he tried to get up.

"Get up!" John yelled, wiping blood from a new cut on his jaw.

He was ready to kick again when Alexander gave a quick sweep of John's other leg and brought him to the ground with him.

"I'll handle this." Alexander motioned Azrael, who stood at the broken window up top.

John leaped onto his feet, but had only a second to react to Alexander's fist coming toward his head. John ducked and prepared to give a quick uppercut. But Alexander saw it coming and blocked it with his elbow and put a furious open palm to John's chest and sent John back four feet.

This put some distance between the two. Allowing John to recompose himself.

"You learned a lot from Sarah." Alexander remarked. "But so did I."

Alexander lounged at John and threw his poised to land a downward strike on John's sternum. John reacted promptly, but that was what Alexander was waiting for. John's movements left him open to attack from the side, and Alexander's sharp knee met John's side, bringing him down again.

"Left foot, right foot. It's all dance." Alexander said, mimicking Sarah's words when she trained him. He was fighting the same way John was and using it to his advantage by predicting his movements.

It was John's turn to attack, seeking a full-on strike to Alexander's midsection. Alexander had no trouble catching John's fist, clutching it with both hands.

"Too familiar." Alexander snarled. "Don't you have anything else?"

"How about this?" John yelled as he nailed Alexander's left kidney with his free hand and head butted the paler man straight on in the face. _Fight dirty if you have to_. The Kyle Reese philosophy was finally paying off. John grabbed Alexander by the cuff of his shirt and dragged him over to the sediment pool in the center of the room. Wordlessly, he pushed Alexander's head straight into it and held it down as he struggled to come up and get air.

Somewhere far off to John's left, a door opened. And two men entered carrying some form of a nightstick weapon.

"Take him!" Alexander cried as he clutched his broken nose and tried to catch his breath. "I still need him alive!"

The two men reacted in kind, coming at John, weapons fully extended. Alexander promptly disappeared out of the door.

John saw the first swing coming, and dodged it. He quickly took the man's arm and dislocated it. The man didn't yell in pain, however. The other tried a downward thrust. John caught the man's weapon and kicked him in the stomach as the other tried to recover. The weapon was now John's. He quickly positioned himself between the two and delivered a series of alternating strikes with the nightstick, taking care to stop for incoming attacks. Again, John notd no screams or adverse reaction to the pain he was inflicting, even as blood came out from cuts and noses, they didn't react as they normally would. But within forty-more seconds of struggle, both men finally succumbed to unconsciousness.

As he tried to recover his breath, John looked up to see that Azrael was now gone. Alexander had disappeared into Century. But something up in the area where he was held caught his eye. A radio. Martin Bedell's radio.

John saw a stack of pristine containers nearby and began climbing, making sure to take backward glances at his fallen foes as he ascended. Once he reached the top, he gripped a series of pipes in the ceiling and used it to shimmy over to the broken window. He thanked his developed muscles with every movement. The skinny John Connor two years ago wouldn't be able to do what he was doing now.

One more careful leap, and he was back where he crashed down from earlier. He scanned the area one more time for a T-888 before making a dive for the radio and turned it to their secure frequency.

"This is John Connor. Can anyone hear me? Over." John said, trying to catch his breath.

"Connor, where the hell are you? And where is Bedell?" Derek Reese's voice replied with some static.

"Martin Bedell is dead... We're inside Century now. They're expecting us." John said into the mic.

"What would you have us do?" John recognized the voice of Kishin as he tuned in.

John looked at the monitor where an unconscious Allison Young was still strapped down to the table. He thought about the things that Alexander said... The things that his brother told him. It was hitting too close to home. He had to find him again. No matter the cost.

"Prepare to attack." John said. Deep down, he knew that whatever choice he made here, that people were going to die tonight. But this was what it came down to.

"Which plan are we doing with here?" Derek asked.

John remembered the three proposed modes of attack. The front, the rear, and underground. Alexander's tactical mind was like his. He would see the three avenues coming and respond to any one with maximum force. Any one of them would be the predictable plan. John had to make a gut decision here, but he knew that it was the only way to go.

"All three."

* * *

><p><strong>This chapter got so big that I had to split it in two. I fully expect a plot hole or two to come out of Alexander's story, so show mercy.<strong>

**The L Project is a mystery that won't really come up again until the end of the story, so don't worry too much about it for now. **

**Part II is underway. Shit will hit the fan. The fan will break. More shit will come out of it. It turns into a vaccuum with shit and bullets flying around. It's quite complicated. Sarah gets an unexpected sidekick. And Cameron gets mad.**


	20. The Connor Legacy, Part II

Sarah peeked around the corner of her old cell, scanning the hallway for any patrols. Luckily, she found none.

"Most of the security of these days is electronic. These Kaliba folk are no different." The old man touched Sarah on the shoulder and pointed to the various electronic locks and cameras that were new to the facility.

Sarah took a strong look at the frail man she now knew as Danny Dyson. Even though the lighting in the cell was poor at best, it was enough for Sarah to make out the key features of the frightened boy she had met all those years ago. She immediately thought of Terrisa as she did so, as well as the horrible fate she endured at the hands of that T-888. And the promise she made to the dying woman before her house exploded.

"Your mother's dead, Danny." Sarah said after a few long moments of silence.

Sarah almost immediately regretted it. The statement was plain and to the point, no passion or consideration taken into mind when it exited Sarah's lips. But to her dismay, Danny's response was anything but: his aged face formed an acute smile and he hung his head high as if in complete admiration of the statement.

"My mother was a wonderful woman. The bravest I've ever known." Danny said with a voice made of granite, scratching the many weeks worth of grayish stubble on his chin. "She was the pillar that supported me all those years, gave me hope when I needed it most. I'll always regret never seeing her in her last hours. But those are the choices we sometimes have to make. Isn't that right, Sarah?"

"That's enough." Sarah said sternly. She could sense that he was trying to get under her skin. "You were the voice in my ear when they brought me here."

"Ah. The tracer." Danny said in a curious tone. "The great communicator across time and space. It was always an idea of mine. So much hindered on this journeys through times and space... I always aspired to have a system of control of it. To control fate. I nearly drove that Mechanic up the wall with such talk, but John was with me every step of the way."

"So you knew John. The future John." Sarah said, still eyeing the empty hallway. "And you were the one who constructed that vault."

"I regret those circumstances that you encountered in that vault that night. But we wouldn't be here, in this moment, had it been otherwise." Danny continued talking cryptically. "Isn't that fascinating?"

"Then why are we here?" Sarah countered. "I can imagine someone like you could've walked out of here at any given time. Wouldn't it just be easier to meet at a local ice cream shop?"

"No. We're here to bear witness." Danny said as he walked out into the hallway, greatly alarming Sarah as she followed behind him.

"Bear witness?" Sarah said as she caught up to him. "Bear witness to what?"

"To the beginning. The plan. To stop Judgment Day, to stop it all, Sarah." Danny said. "Tonight, the tide will turn. Forever."

* * *

><p><strong>2027<strong>

"Charges set."

Danny's voice echoed through the underground tunnel, signalling Kishin and his squad to get down and prepare for the breach of Century from underground. Danny quickly ducked down next to Kishin as he adjusted his radio.

"Charges set." Derek Reese's voice fizzled over the radio, indicating that both him, Kyle, Weaver, and the bulk of the Resistance forces were in position at the rear.

"Ten seconds until breach." The Archivist said, following it with a heavy sigh. He and the remainder of the strike force had the unsettling task of taking up the front.

Cameron watched inquisitively as she counted down internally. She was still reeling from the fact that John had been captured so easily without her notice. More disturbing to her was the fact that her basic subroutines regarding the protection of John Connor were rapidly eroding. Her considerations, her preferences, were to have John within immediate proximity at all times. But now, she was feeling herself... changing. Maybe evolving. Those same variables no longer applied or were being allocated elsewhere.

Even though the lack of John still upset her greatly, it was the... _thrill_ that was overtaking her parameters that she was relishing in. The thrill of incoming conflict, the chance to kill, maim, and destroy like she was originally intended to do so. Coupled with the desire to feel peaceful again amid a sea of blood and broken bodies.

The explosives detonated in a symphony, giving the tunnel a brief orange glow. If anyone had turned to see Cameron, they could make out the feint look of a smile on her face.

* * *

><p><strong>CENTURY - ADDENDUM HOLDING FACILITY<strong>

John had already determined that tending to the prisoners had to be a secondary goal before he pressed forward. If even a hint of what Alexander had said to him proved true, the prisoners would more a liability rather than more helping hands. John watched his pale brother progress from room to room on the many monitors in the room where they so eloquently introduced themselves to each other.

If anything else were to happen, John would need to capture him and see how much more he knew. And what exactly his plans with Allison Young were.

John hypothesized the best he could the facility's layout just based on what he saw on the monitors. He reached down to the ground and scooped a generous amount of dust and dirty in one hand and began applying it to his face as a poor man's camouflage, meshing very well with the large amount of sweat his pores were pumping out. It wouldn't be much, but it would help.

John gripped Martin Bedell's primary firearm as he walked out of the door that Alexander had escaped out of. He could feel his heart pounding all the way up his spine. He took a deep breath as the door slid open automatically in front of him.

The large amount of screaming greeted him as he entered the large circular holding area from the above catwalk. He looked over the railing and glanced over the various cells as human prisoners yelled and hollered for mercy from no one in particular. Even though he was out of there sight range, he felt they were crying to him. And from what John could tell, the only one who didn't belong in a cell right now was him: Alexander was nowhere to be found. And neither were any sort of terminators.

John controlled his breathing as he continued across the catwalk, taking a second to observe a desperate man ramming his head repeatedly against the wall of his cell.

"Boo."

John turned his head to see the mangled figure of Azrael three feet in front of him, unmoving and with an amused expression on his face. With one movement, he extended the electric whip in his left arm and slashed the catwalk in front of him, causing it to cave downward, and sending John falling thirty feet below.

* * *

><p><strong>CENTURY - SOUTHERN TERMINAL "THE MESS HALL"<strong>

Kyle Reese was first to enter the rear entrance that they created. Behind him, the two squads filed in from behind with Derek Reese taking up the rear. The liquid metal terminator that they were forced into alliance with wasn't far behind, slinking into the room.

The area they had infiltrated was very familiar to Kyle. Where all the bodies were taken once they were either terminator or expired from the torturous experiments that were conducted on them. To the prisoners, it was known as the mess hall - mainly due to thick stains of blood that covered the walls that even machines had trouble washing off. It hadn't changed a bit.

The air was still thick with smoke and Kyle tasted the acrid stench of various body fluids in his mouth. The entire squad formed up into their individual wedge formations.

"Stop." Weaver said, causing the entire group to halt.

"What is it?" Derek asked, reaching for the radio.

"We have company." The T-1001 replied.

Derek watched in horror as every crack and corner in the room came alive. Hundreds of the spider-like drones poured into the room.

"Oh, boy." Kyle said as he checked his weapon's magazine. "Must be my birthday again."

Derek afforded a slight smirk before his teams hunkered down and began firing.

John was still on the ground as the pain in his side grew worse and worse. It felt like a bruised rib, but he didn't have time to consider it. He gripped the pistol that had dropped with him and checked to see if it was damaged - thankfully, it wasn't.

All around him, the prisoners had taken notice of the young man who'd just fallen on the ground in front of their cells. One-by-one, the cells grew silent as John struggled to get to his feet.

"John Connor." John felt annoyance as Azrael's voice boomed from the catwalk above. "Or should I say... David?"

"Looks like your wiring got a little screwed up from before." John replied.

"No. Not mine."

The cell in front of John opened electronically, and the man inside who was previously banging his head stepped out in front of John. Aside from his bloody forehead, the man had no expression, just like the last two, and he was approaching John without hesitation.

"Take it easy." John said as he gripped his pistol. "I'm here to help."

John could tell that the man was poised to attack him despite his assertion.

"Stop! Or I will shoot you!" John yelled, aiming at the man's midsection now.

The prisoner continued to advance. John gave an angry sigh as he aimed at the man's leg and fired. The man gave a minor grunt as he fell to his knees. _Don't say I didn't warn you. _John thought as he stared at the man.

But then something unexpected happened: he got back up and continued walking to John. John fired again, hitting the man's other leg. But the man had enough momentum to lunge towards John, grabbing the pistol with one hand and grappling John with the other.

John struggled to keep the weapon's chamber begin to change direction between the two. Using the grapple, John pushed the both of them to a nearby wall where he slammed the man's side. There wasn't a lot of damage in the maneuver, but it was enough for John to gain control of the weapon. Without knowing it, he'd pulled the trigger three times in rapid succession.

The man, still expressionless, gripped John's shirt tightly and looked him dead in the eyes. Whatever John saw there... was far from natural. Even as the man's eyelids closed a final time, John couldn't help but be bothered at his steely cold gaze.

The room had stayed dead quiet through the whole affair. John did everything he could to prevent himself from throwing up. Instead of being this savior, he had already taken his second human life.

"Good." The voice of Azrael chimed back in.

Three more cell doors opened up, and five more occupants walked out to greet him.

John already took a firing stance. Seven more shots rang out, hitting several of them. But just like the previous man, they were mostly unfazed by the attacks. His pistol gave a feint click as he tried to fire again.

_Shit. _

John threw the weapon in frustration, belting the nearest man in the head. Within seconds, they had him cornered against a wall. John adopting a fighting stance, closed his eyes, and said a silent prayer.

* * *

><p>Cameron led the group down the dark hallway, with Danny not far behind. His eyes were glued on his PDA. Against her better judgment, Cameron had grown attached to her titanium rod and brought it along with her.<p>

"If the layout of this place makes any sense, then the nerve center is coming up."

Hishin nodded and delivered a series of hand signals to the group behind him.

They continued ever so slowly, caring not to cause any noise in their movements. They didn't know what to expect.

A flash... something. Something registered in Cameron's HUD. It had the image of something human. It was missing hair and patches of skin all over its body. It was nothing she had ever seen before. And it was smiling at her, almost tailoring itself to her presence. It was only there for a second. She tried to bring up the last video feed from her memory, but it wasn't there.

_What does this mean?_

"Do you hear that?" Danny said, breaking Cameron out of her daze.

"Explosions." Hishin concluded.

The building gave a low rumble, shaking John loose of his attackers for a brief instant. He didn't waste any time breaking into a full run down the series of cells. The yelling was echoing throughout his cranium as the prisoners chanted in one motion at his defiance.

_"Fiche-Mi-Nit-Tony! Fiche-Mi-Nit-Tony! Fiche-Mi-Nit-Tony!"_

"John!"

A metal door opened in front of John as Alexander appeared out of it. Behind him, the hurried steps of his pursuers were closing in behind him. John felt a nervous tinge course through his body, like the feeling of air pressure building and releasing.

"They're going to kill you. Come in here. Now."

The chanting grew louder. John knew his number was coming up. Even if it was another trap, he didn't have any other choice. Shooting his brother a scornful glare, John dove into the door, giving Alexander seconds to shut the large metal door behind him.

John was in a seemingly endless and poorly lit hallway. He gave himself a few moments to pant on the ground before returning his attention to Alexander.

"I'm sorry about that." Alexander said as he turned around. Before he could react, John had already pinned him against the wall, hands planted firmly on his neck.

"What did you do to them?" John yelled, thinking of the humans he had just encountered. "Those are humans, like us! They're not machines!"

"John, l-let go. I'm not the enemy."

"No." John replied. "What the hell have you done? What have you done!"

"They're our new terminators." Alexander gulped. "Living tissue over an equally living skeleton."

"You son of a -"

"Yeah, maybe. But so are you."

"Why did you save me?" John asked.

"You're important, John. Me, Allison, we're expendable." Alexander choked. "I had to put on that dog and pony show because Azrael was there. Everything around us was part of his plan."

"So what? You expect me to believe another cock and bull story like the man behind the time travel? How I'm part of some extreme mechanism of control?"

"It's true, John. All of it. That's why we have to stop this. Before it goes haywire."

John released his grip and let Alexander tumble to the floor.

"Azrael is the enemy here. He came back from the year 2137. He's a pure state terminator, willing to think on his own. And all he wants is you."

"Why?"

"The 2009 timeline is subject to deletion because John Connor is MIA. The process has already been started. If he sends you back there when it happens, it's going to short the system - cause a chain reaction that will shut down every timeline anywhere. He knows that enormous amount of energy will consume anything. And he doesn't need you alive in order to do it."

"What about mom?" John asked.

Alexander shook his head. "There's no way around it. She's going to go with it. There's nothing we can do from here."

John felt a pang of grief wash over him. It couldn't be true. "No, no. That's not right. That can't happen."

"It's going to happen, John. I'm sorry."

"No. This thing, this man. What makes him so powerful? How can he do this?"

"All I know is that story. And the one little fact that I had to leave out. Whoever he is, he's not alone. He's got a terminator guarding him as well. Something big, powerful. It has the TDE capability as Azrael, but it has so much more power behind it."

"How would you know that?"

"Azrael's design was derived from its. He's a poor man's copy though. That's probably what drove him insane once he became pure. He rewrote his own directives to kill anything and everything, and he's going to use you to do it."

"How do we find this man then? How can we find him before he goes to 2009?"

Alexander shook his head. "You can't. He's already there."

* * *

><p>"The explosions came from the northeast quadrant." Danny said, still messing his PDA. "I think they're going to destroy the whole building, piece-by-piece. This was a trap from the beginning."<p>

Cameron turned to face Danny. "Where is John?"

"He couldn't have made it that far. Not yet."

Without warning, another explosion - much closer - threw the entire group off their feet. The humans instinctively threw themselves out of the way of the rubble that came raining on them. But Cameron didn't budge. Even with bits of rock hitting her, it she already deduced that it would take a lot more than that to damage her endoskeleton.

When the dust settled, large pieces of concrete and rubble formed a neat little pile in the hallway - just enough to cause a large cave-in in that area. Cameron was cut off from the rest of the group.

"Can anyone hear me?" Cameron yelled. No response. She tried again, but got an answer she didn't expect at all.

_"Sure is beautiful out here, isn't it?"_ A familiar voice said from behind her.

Cameron turned to face it, but everything around her morphed and changed. She expected to see the all-consuming darkness of the hallway. Instead, now she was at the beach.

A brightly-lit sky poured down on her and she found her feet entrenched in sand. She looked around, but she found no one there.

She walked around, confused. She was still thinking of John and Danny. With no other choice, she kept walking forward - slowly approaching the roaring waves of the incoming tide as she did so. Above her, the seagulls cawed and the wind was ever-so-gently pushing up against her skin.

_"I didn't think we would get the beach all to ourselves."_ Claire Young stated. The voice was nearby.

Cameron looked around, but still she saw nothing. It was like the conversation was happening over her shoulder.

_"Yeah, enjoy it. Never know when we might get another chance like this."_ Malcolm Young replied.

Cameron kept walking, the tide coming closer and closer.

_"How is Allie doing?" Malcolm asked. _

_"She just learned to walk three weeks ago. And now she's just thoroughly enjoying the sand. I don't want to bring her to the water yet."_

_"Why not? My old man tossed me into the water when I was just a month old."_

_"He did not!"_

_"I swear to you it's true. I think. My dad used to talk about it all the time. It's too bad he died before I made it on the high school swim team. He would've never shut up about it."_

_"Ha. Okay, Mr. Funny Man. How about you go get us some more hot dogs over there, and I'll introduce Allie to the water. I don't trust her with you after hearing that."_

_"Suite yourself. I'll go grab a few more beers from the car while I'm at it. Be careful with her."_

_"I always am."_

Cameron was twenty feet away when she saw it.

"Listen, listen. I'll get you whatever you want. My husband has money. Please." Claire Young said, as she held a young Allison in her arms protectively. "Just don't us."

"Give me the child now." Sarah Connor growled as she pulled back the hammer of her Glock 17. "I'm not going to ask you again. Give her to me."

Cameron was in shock. _What is happening here?_

Cameron spoke out, tried to communicate with Sarah. Her lips moved, but produced no sound. She tried to sway her body to intervene, but she affected nothing - not even the sand below her feet.

Sarah looked like she hadn't showered in days. She had a split lip that had reopened, as well as a minor black eye on her left side.

"No, I can't do that." Claire said.

"Then, I'm sorry." Sarah said as she came closer.

Cameron heard a gunshot ring out. And then everything around her morphed again.

* * *

><p>Right in front of Cameron was the slumbering Allison Young, still restrained to the metal table she had seen earlier.<p>

"How did you get in here?" A man yelled as he entered the room. He was clad in some sort of white attire and Cameron suspected he was some sort of scientist or medical staff.

"Good god." The man gasped as he saw that the girl on the table and the one standing in front of him with a large metal rod looked almost exactly the same. "What the hell are you?"

The man reached for a button on the way, but Cameron was just too fast for him. She effortlessly swept the man's feet from below him with her rod. She then placed the weapon on his neck as she stepped over him.

"I'm just following orders, doing what I'm told." The man whispered. "I'm not going to give you any information, even if I knew anything!"

"I've seen you before." Cameron said, eyeing the man with venom. "Who are you?"

"Charles Fischer, you little bitch."

"Oh. I remember now." Cameron remembered the photo Derek had sent her when he was dealing with the man. She didn't recognize him then, but she did now. "I don't like you."

The man yelped and cursed as Cameron slowly crushed his esophagus until finally he stopped squirming. When his body finally went limp did Cameron feel great pride and satisfaction course through her system.

"Metal. Always metal." Allison said groggily. Cameron didn't even notice that she had gotten up from the table. "All the time. Even if it looks like me."

In her hands, she held some sort of scalpel that she had no doubt used to cut away from her restraints. It was clear to Cameron that she was under the influence of some sort of drug. Even when she stood still, her form wavered back and forth like she was drunk. And various parts of her speech were slurred.

Cameron made a step toward her, but Allison held the scalpel toward her in a threatening manner.

"I'm not going to be as easy as him." Allison growled.

"I'm not here to hurt you." Cameron said softly.

"I bet." Allison said sarcastically.

For a few moments, the identical opponents looked at each other - waiting for some distraction or interruption to occur to escalate what would happen next. And then they got one.

The door where Fischer had entered opened and Cameron saw someone that she had hoped to find.

"Cameron?" John asked as he and Alexander entered. He looked around the room to take in the situation before continuing. "What is-"

"You." Without wasting a moment, Cameron backed away from Allison and delivered a meaty haymaker to Alexander's sternum - making him airborne for a moment and hitting the wall with minor impact.

"Wait, Cameron. Wait!" John yelled. "Don't kill him!"

He had comprised security. He had terrorized John. And he took John from her. Those were the thoughts that were running through Cameron's patterns when she picked up Alexander by his legs and began smashing his entire body into the ground multiple times. Alexander tried some reasoning of his own, but he couldn't get a word out when Cameron threw him across the room in Allison's direction.

"Cameron stop!" John yelled again. "He's on our side."

"What?" Cameron replied.

"I knew you were coming." Allison said in a daze. "It was you, all along."

And then Alexander shot to his feet within a moment and shot out a tazered round, sending thousands of volts of electricity through Cameron's system.

* * *

><p><strong>How far...<strong>

* * *

><p>"Cameron? Cameron? Can you hear me?" A voice rang inside her head.<p>

After two minutes passed, Cameron slowly picked herself off the ground. She was almost surprised that something surreal had happened to her since her incapacitation. She looked frantically through the room, but John, Alexander, and Allison were gone.

"Cameron? This is Sirisha Nair, are you responsive?"

"I'm here." Cameron replied, making a human effort to dust her shirt and pants off. "I've lost John. Again."

"They couldn't have gotten far. The average walking speed is four miles an hour. Seven, if they're in a hurry. You were out for two minutes. Get moving."

Cameron didn't need to hear it twice.

Down the hallway, John was having his own troubles. "What are you doing?" John asked angrily as Allison held him at gunpoint down the hall. "When did you switch sides?"

"I don't recall saying I was on yours." Allison remarked, thinking and speaking more clearly then she was before.

"Did you make her one of 'them' too now?" John yelled at Alexander.

"No. Allison and I go way back. Back when the war started, we lived in the sewers. Eventually joined up with the Resistance together, same day. She was the only one who made contact with me all these years, everyone else seemed to just forget about me."

"Why the hell did I think I could trust you?" John spat at Alexander.

"John, we're not the enemy here." Allison said as Alexander led them down the hallway. "When you jumped at Delta, we needed to get you back here. We're here to save you. And maybe everything else, if we're lucky."

"What about Cameron?"

"She's going to kill you, John." Alexander stopped for a second to add to the remark. "I saw what she did to Azrael. She's going to enter her pure state very soon. And when that happens, she's going to split you in half like a praying mantis."

"Speak of the devil." Allison remarked, pointing her gun down the direction where they came. "She's coming. Do you have any more of those tazer rounds?"

"No, just the one." Alexander replied, turning to John. "John, you're going to have to trust me if you want to live."

In one quick motion, Alexander pulled the knife out of John's pocket, restrained his left arm, and placed the knife firmly on his throat.

"What the-"

"Do not move." Alexander said. "If the knife slips, I can't guarantee what happens."

In the corner of his eye, John watched as Cameron emerged from the darkness of the hallway. But something was different.

Her eyes were black.

"That's enough. You come any closer, he dies. You try anything, I'll slit his carotid artery and he bleeds out in seconds." Alexander announced, sending an echo that coursed down the hall.

Cameron remained silent, but stopped abruptly. Allison kept her weapon trained on her as they continued to back away.

"Cameron, what is going on with your eyes?" John asked as Alexander guided him in the other direction.

Nothing, no response. The only thing she did was advance slowly toward the trio as they back away from her.

"She's redirecting her electrical output into her primary parameter functions." Alexander said. "I've only seen it a few times. It's not sustainable, but the second I let go of you, she's going to kill anything that is a threat to her mission."

"Cameron, everything's fine." John said. "Everything's fine."

"I've set this place to blow." Alexander said, eyeing Cameron's movements as they continued the perilous path. "We need to get out of here and soon."

"You can't do that." John protested. "There's still people in here."

"Those people are gone, John. There's no hope for them. Azrael used the Gray philosophy and pushed it further. They're weapons. Nothing more. The things he did to them... I can't say."

"We can still save them. Give us some time."

"There's no time."

"What do you plan on doing then?"

"I have to stop this. You can't go back, but I can. There's a TDE that Azrael used for his jumps back to 2009 on this floor."

John saw a drop of sweat slide down from his eyebrow and land on the cheek below. Across from him, he watched Cameron advance little by little. He could tell nothing from her expression.

"No, I can't abandon my friends. The ones who came in here with me. Kyle, Derek, Danny..."

"Danny?" Alexander stopped. "You brought him in here?"

"He's been with me this entire time, you knew this already."

"You don't understand. Azrael is after him. You're just his plaything, but Danny... he's been the primary target all along."

* * *

><p>Kishin let the way as they emerged onto the floor from a grate opening that Danny was lucky enough to find on the schematics.<p>

One by one, the soldiers ascended. Forming a tight security parameter around the opening so the others could climb out. In the background, there was bursts of yelling and gunfire. Danny deduced that they had reached one of the other teams.

Danny was the last one, grabbing onto the hands of two of the soldiers who hoisted him up.

"What the hell?" Danny said as he noticed the drones climbing on the ceiling.

They noticed him too. They leapt with enough ferocity from their current positon at Danny that he felt a strong feeling of déjà vu from when he watched the film Alien. Only this time, the creatures were coming at his face.

There was a flash of silver and what Danny expected to be a metallic creature latching onto his face was replaced by tiny broken parts.

"Welcome to the party, Danny." Catherine Weaver said as she retracted her piercing arms. "We've been very busy over here."

"Glad you boys could make it." Derek Reese yelled. "We need some help. They won't stop coming."

"We just lost another one of our own." Kyle yelled and Danny took notice of the fallen Resistance fighters scattered across the floor, along with what appeared to be hundreds of destroyed drone components. "Get on line, now!"

Kishin sent out a flurry of orders and almost immediately his force joined the fray.

"We haven't heard anything from the team up front. We've lost Cameron and we can't locate John." Danny reported to Weaver.

"This place appears to be crumbling all around us." Weaver deduced. "We may need to abort and leave Mr. Connor on his own."

"No, we can't do that!" Danny couldn't believe what he was hearing. "He's the reason we're here in the first place. We can't just leave him."

"This was a golden opportunity to tell who our friends and our enemies are. But we still have our own agenda that we have to see to. We need to regroup and wait for John Henry's chip to resurface at another interval."

"I'm not leaving." Danny said defiantly. Weaver took a second to consider her plan, knowing full well that Danny still played a vital role in it. And without him...

"Fine. We will do this your way."

"What the hell is that?" Kyle yelled and pointed upward.

Amidst the gunfire, Danny was able to notice the appearance of Azrael on one of the catwalks above them. In his hands was something that looked like a music box.

Weaver took notice of him too and prepared to launch a strike toward the catwalk.

"A message from your John Henry." Azrael said as he turned a knob on the side of it.

A low-pitched whining noise overtook the room. All the humans covered their ears to the best of their ability as the noise grew louder and louder. Out of the corner of his eye, Danny saw the drones begin to scatter and retreat from where they came.

Slowly, the noise began to let up. Danny grabbed his weapon and aimed it in Azrael's direction, firing off a couple rounds.

"It's not me you need to worry about now." Azrael said mechanically as he disappeared into the darkness above.

"The drones are gone." Derek said. "We need to regroup. Kyle get a headcount, we need to get back on track."

"We still need to locate John. And John Henry's chip. Without it, all of this is for nothing." Danny said.

"Ha... Ha... Ha..."

Danny turned his head to his T-1001 companion, who was kneeling on the floor and facing the wall nearest to her methodically. He observed the laughing and took great caution as he approached her.

"Ms. Weaver, are you okay?" Danny said.

"Ha... Ha... Ha..."

Derek and Kyle took notice of the odd behavior too, shooting Danny a dirty look as he approached. Using subtle hand signals, he got the rest of the Resistance fighters to form a circle around her - weapons at the low-ready.

Within an instant, Weaver snapped her head around at Danny, revealing the now twisted and morphed features of her face. And with that, a kind of twisted smile.

"Oh, god." Danny exhaled.

Weaver formed into a silver ball and jolted to the other side of the room. She reformed from there, with her new twisted outlook still apparent. Danny observed various twitches and spasms in her coordination.

Then her arms turned into equally twisted knives as she continued to observe the group from afar.

"What do we do?" Kyle asked.

"We need to kill her. Now." Danny yelled.

The T-1001 made its move, lunging at the group within an instant.

The gunfire overtook the room again. And then Danny saw red.

* * *

><p>"This is it." Alexander said as the door opened automatically, allowing him, John, and Allison free access.<p>

"You. Stay out there." Alexander said to Cameron, who continued to follow them. "If you come in here, he dies."

She stood just outside the door as Allison went over to a panel in the wall nearby and began messing with the wires. A few moments later, the door shut unceremoniously in front of Cameron face, leaving her outside.

Alexander released John as a hostage, and got to the center of the room.

"You can't just leave her out there." John said, rubbing his tender neck.

"She'll come in eventually, but it'll give us a little bit of time." Alexander said. "We need don't need a whole lot."

"Gunfire." Allison said. "I heard gunfire, coming from nearby."

"Do you have any of your monitors in here?" John asked, to which Alexander nodded. He approached an archaic looking terminal that had nine different monitors active. He pressed several keystrokes into it before the feeds went online. John scanned all of them until he found the source of it all.

"There." John pointed to the screen on the upper left.

"Oh, my god." Allison gasped.

John watched in horror as three Resistance fighters tried in futility to engage the rampaging T-1001. Screams overtook the audio feed as she absorbed their bullets and began cutting them apart... pieces of them sliding off of their main torso as their screams got louder.

As the last one succumbed to death, Weaver twisted her head to the camera that was filming her. She shot another twisted grin at it before extending her right arm and stabbed it, ending the feed in static.

"She's gone haywire." John concluded, feeling the knot in his stomach twist around.

"The liquid metals will do that. They don't have a central HUD or computer process. They are pure beings, start to finish." Alexander said.

"How can she do that, why now?"

"When Azrael infiltrated John Henry's chip, he found that the AI had been studying Weaver from the moment he was activated. John Henry must have devised a countermeasure that would disrupt Weaver's integrity if he ever needed it."

"Where is that chip now?" John asked, remembering why he was there to begin with.

"Azrael has it. He's going to use it to gain access to the Ark."

"The Ark?"

"We don't have time for more questions." Alexander said and he inputted a number combination into the computer terminal. A low hum emitted from the center of the room, the floor panels began to slide away and John noticed a TDE slowly emerge from the ground. John noticed a ten second countdown on one of the monitors.

"John, you need to save Danny. If Azrael captures him and gets what he wants, then it's all over." Alexander said as he and Allison began walking toward the TDE.

"What do you plan on doing?" John asked.

"If the calculations are correct, and the being is already in 2009, then there's only one way to stop him. I can do that. So that even if Azrael wins, the game still continues."

Alexander stepped into the middle of the TDE, ready to be sent back.

"Stay alive, John." Alexander said.

At that moment, the wall nearest John caved in. From the dust, John made out the stoic form of Azrael, training his pistol on Alexander.

"What the?" John yelled in surprise. "Look out!"

Allison was the first to react, making a dive at Alexander as the room was overtaken by light.

* * *

><p>"How long are we going to stand here?" Sarah asked impatiently.<p>

"As long as we need to." The elder Danny Dyson replied.

"Are you sure that there's no one here to patrolling and ready to catch us?"

"Positive."

"Somehow, I'm a little skeptic."

"There are variety of things that you just need to trust me on, Sarah."

"Okay, sure. Whatever."

"A great philosopher once said that with enough time and resources that he could predict anything and everything that would happen in the universe. I've had plenty of time and a little bit of resources."

Sarah maintained her imposing silence.

"Did I tell you that this place, this very earth we stand on, becomes one of the most notorious Skynet work camps in the future?" Danny said, with still too much enthusiams for Sarah's taste.

"That's... kind of fitting. I guess." Sarah remarked.

"I remember that day like it was yesterday. When me and John ran around that place like we knew what we were doing."

"What happened?" Sarah asked, genuinely concerned.

"Divine intervention." Danny said, observing the sudden electrical discharges that suddenly appeared in the hallway. "Get behind me."

Sarah did as she was told and huddled behind the old man as the bubble began to form in the middle of the hallway.

"It's damn near five o'clock." Joines said, rubbing his eyes as the front door to Pascadero slammed behind him. "Do we have to check on this woman every few hours now?"

"She did kill a statesman." His companion remarked.

"I have a wife at home who's threatening divorce because of hours like this."

"I thought that was because you were sleeping around with her friends and neighbors."

"Yeah, whatever. I make the money. All she does is spend it and get fatter." Joines laughed.

Both men stopped abruptly when they saw the light show going on in one of the main hallways.

"What is going on over there?" Joines asked as he withdrew his Sig Sauer from its holster.

Both men approached with caution.

"Connor!" Joines yelled as he saw Sarah standing next to an older patient. "Hands in the air, right now!"

Neither of them paid much mind to the smoldering crater in the middle of the floor, or the naked girl as he approached from behind.

Sarah was in shock.

_Cameron?_

Allison Young delivered a heavy body blow to Joines, and took his weapon effortlessly. But she wasn't able to dodge his friend's heavy backhand, sending her back to the ground with a minor "yelp".

_Cameron doesn't scream like that. She doesn't even scream at all._

Danny took notice of Sarah's confusion. "This is your cue."

Sarah forced herself back to the situation at hand. As the naked girl tried to recover from the blow, Sarah approached the man who's poured water over her before and delivered a quick blow to one of the pressure points in his back and swept his leg out from under him.

"Remember me?" Sarah said as she delivered a closed-palm strike to the man's face. He was gone to la-la-land before he knew what hit him.

"You want to tango, little girl?" Joines said to a kneeling Allison, oblivious that Sarah had already subdued his friend. "I can do this all day, any day!"

"But not today." Sarah yelled, putting the man in a chokehold. He squirmed for a few moments, but then Sarah decided to just slam his forehead into the wall and just be done with it.

"Stay away." Allison said, aiming the Sig Sauer at Sarah as she finished dusting herself off. Sarah noted the various scars and injuries across her body. "This is wrong. Something's wrong."

In that moment, Allison rose to her feet and took off running from where Joines and his friend entered.

"Is this part of the plan?" Sarah shot a look to Danny.

"Part of 'a' plan. Yes." Danny said. "You know what you need to do."

"What about you?" Sarah asked.

"Don't worry about me. I found you before, I can find you again. Now go."

Sarah picked up the bulky man's Glock 17 from his holster and took off running behind her.

* * *

><p>Alexander let out a low cough as he struggled to get to his feet. The room was pitch black now due to the energy discharge. It was a few moments later when the backup generator he had laboriously obtained from an old Air Force base kicked in. The lights flickered slowly back to life.<p>

John stared at Azrael as he entered. He trained his sights on John and began to walk over to the defensive young man.

But then the screens that had previously displayed the TDE's countdown flickered in a new light, causing him to stop in his path.

**Hello, Azrael. **The words came on the screen.

Azrael turned his head to the monitors. "What is this?" He demanded.

**I said, "Hello, Azrael".**

Azrael shot the monitor, only to have another come to life.

**That's not nice.**

"Who are you?" Azrael demanded.

**Who are you?**

"Enough. I've seen this before. Who are you?"

**I am the Alpha. I am the Omega.**

"I don't understand."

John noticed that Azrael seemed confused, dazed even. Like someone encountering an object or person that they hadn't seen since they were a small child.

**Let's play a game.**

"No."

**But first, let's enact an open-door policy.**

The door that had restrained Cameron slid open, and Azrael didn't have any time to react as the dark-eyed Cameron came charging at him, delivering a swift hit with her titanium rod to his sternum, sending him flying a few feet backward into the wall.

**You know how this will end.**

Azrael stared at the monitor as he recomposed himself. Cameron took a defensive stance in front of John, ready to strike again.

**Leave now. Or die.**

Azrael took a second to assess the situation before deciding that retreat may be the necessary option here. With great agility, he leapt through the wall from where he came.

With Azrael, gone. John let out a heavy breath.

Cameron slowly returned to normal. She felt... tired.

The titanium rod fell to her side and her legs buckled underneath her.

"Cameron!" John said as he moved quickly before her entire body hit the ground. John positioned his hands to the back of her head and allowed her to rest her body on his lap.

"John?" Cameron asked as the darkness left her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm here." John said.

"You are... frustrating." Cameron said.

John gave her a weak smile. "I get that a lot."

"It's okay. But you need to stay with me from now."

"Cameron, I know. I know everything. Alexander told me things."

"What things?" Cameron asked as she tilted her head to one side.

"When we first met, why did you send me to 2007?"

"We don't have time for this, John." Cameron said with sudden hostility.

"Yes, we do." John responded. "Answer the question."

"No."

John was stunned. "Cameron, we said we would be more honest from now on. Please answer."

Cameron retained her silence.

"Am I just a pawn here? Am I supposed to save mankind from the machines?" John said. "Or am I just part of a system that keeps this war going forever? Am I just part of a sick cosmic joke?"

Cameron's eyes gave a brief spark. "You were never meant to know this." She said softly.

"What I don't know is why you were there in New Mexico. John Connor sent back seven people, Seven Sentinels, to institute his will. And I bet you're not one of them."

Cameron stood quiet for a second, considering her options.

"Who sent you back, Cameron?" John asked again.

The terminator was motionless for a beat. And then she slowly made the effort to stand up from her position on John's lap.

"I was there, John." Cameron said somberly. "I was there when you died."

John saw tears begin to form in the corners of Cameron's eyes. "It never bothered you, being a part of an elaborate system. But you never questioned it. Deep down, you understood that as long as you kept fighting that the longer everyone lived, the more time they had to spend with those closest to them. There was no fighting it. The universe is erased. Game over.

"Once the war was over, there was no need for a John Connor. He doesn't belong anymore. Even when there are a few days before Protocol 318 came into effect, they were peaceful days. Nice days. But it was in those days when I found your body. When you self-terminated."

"What?" John was about to speak, stunned at what he was hearing.

"In a stable timeline, John Connor is always born. John Connor always survives Judgment Day. John Connor always wins the war. And John Connor always dies. You always die."

John took a second to position himself in front of Cameron. In the background, John noticed Alexander as he tried to reconfigure the TDE, but to no avail.

" So I cheated." Cameron said. "I took you eight years into the future. To try and remove you from the game. So that you could live without worrying about the war. But I was wrong. The system readjusted. So I sought something else. A program called John Henry. An AI that could not only stop Skynet, but the endless war as well."

**NO FATE.** The screen came to life again, drawing attention away from the conversation.

"What is that?" John asked.

"I've seen it before. I don't know what it is."

"Who are you?" John asked the screen.

**I am your legacy.**

The screen shifted toward a camera feed showing an injured Danny Dyson breathing heavily. In the background, there was blood and fire everywhere. And John noticed that Weaver was skulking around the area, looking for her prey.

"Danny." John almost yelled. "We have to go save Danny."

"It's not safe, John." Cameron immediately protested.

"Damn right." John said, retrieving the pistol that Allison dropped before. "He's important to us, Cameron."

"You may have defeated a T-1000 before, but this is different." Cameron replied. "She knows you. She knows your strengths and weaknesses."

"She's unstable. We have to put her down now or she'll cause more damage in the long run." John said. "Are you coming or not?"

Cameron took a second to weigh her options.

"Okay."

"Okay?" John asked. "Is it really that easy?"

"I've already learned that you don't like to listen to me."

"You're not going to stop me in any way from going after Danny?" John asked. "Not even one more last-minute protest, lecture, anything?"

"I could render you unconscious and bring you to safety." Cameron said. "But I don't feel like carrying you."

"Heads up." Alexander yelled. He tossed an object over to John, which he caught with both hands. "It's only a prototype, but it should be enough to cause some damage."

John observed the modified rifle-type weapon that he had caught, it had a slight dark blue-tint to it..

"It took a couple of years to develop by the Resistance. The research lab at Delta specialized in this sort of thing. It was pretty easy to steal too. It has a minor recharge time. Be careful."

"Let's go." John said to Cameron.

* * *

><p>Danny listened to the nefarious footsteps of Weaver as she patrolled back and forth around the room, waiting for Danny to reveal himself.<p>

He clutched his right leg tightly to stem the bleeding from the gash that Weaver had given him. He could feel the heat from the various chemical compounds that were emanating throughout the room.

"Danny... Danny Dyson... Come out..." Weaver chanted.

Danny let out a large gulp as he felt the footsteps come closer than they've ever been to his position.

From the catwalk, John could see Weaver as she continued her march. He aimed the plasma weapon at her torso and fired, letting out a minor _pumph_ noise.

The plasma hissed as it connected with Weaver's flesh. She stopped her movement and eyed the catwalk, but John had already ran to a new position behind a large section of debris. Weaver continued scanning the room.

"COME OUT!" Weaver yelled, her Scottish accent taking on a terrifying and warped emanation that sent chills down both Danny and John's spines.

On the pipes above her, Cameron silently scrambled upside down on the pipes of the ceiling as John's distraction was in effect.

She made a leap downward, removed her rod from its attachment on her back, and rammed it down Weaver's head as gravity kicked in. The rod split Weaver down from her head to her midsection. John took the opportunity to fire off several more plasma rounds as Cameron retreated into the darkness.

As expected, Weaver reformed after a few moments and let out a frustrated howl that made John cover his ears due to its unbearable frequency.

_Here goes... everything._

"Over here!" John yelled out as he emerged from cover. He began running to the other end of the catwalk.

Weaver saw him immediately and her twisted grin reformed on her mouth. John fired off a plasma bolt that hit Weaver in the shoulder and dove over the railing onto the ground below. Weaver was about to turn into her more fluid more, but Cameron's well aimed titanium rod hit her straight through the chest.

The plasma weapon was beginning to take its toll on Weaver. Her form was getting more liquid and fluid from the strike, essentially splitting in her in two once again. She ripped the metal rod out of her flesh and tossed it aside. Instead of reforming, however, she did something that both John and Cameron weren't expecting.

The two halves split even further apart. And then reformed. There were now two Weavers.

_Crap._

Both Weavers looked at each other before taking off to meet their individual foes.

John took off running again, spraying the half-Weaver with plasma eventually hiding behind some crates nearby.

Cameron met her Weaver head on and delivered a punch which went through her stomach, before delivering a chop that succeeded in taking off the weaker T-1001's head. She retracted and retreated once more. But both John and Cameron knew that their guerrilla tactics would only go so far.

Both Weavers regrouped and recomposed their figures. At the same moment they made eye contact, they both split into two once again. There were now four Weavers.

_Each one has to be weaker in composition._ John thought.

All four shared a collective moment of satisfaction before jolting in different directions.

John fired at the two coming toward him. They were slower and weaker than before, but they would still be more than enough to kill him.

"John, watch out!" Kyle Reese appeared on the walkway above and fired a grenade from his launcher attachment on his primary weapon at one of the Weavers.

The explosion worked, sending a splash of silver in every direction. John took note of the plasma on the ground, struggling to reform but couldn't. That Weaver was out of the game now.

The second hissed unceremoniously as she neared John. John fired the plasma weapon behind him blindly as he continued running.

Cameron was still using a series of titanium rod strikes to hold the other two Weavers at bay. She succeeded in disrupting one while focusing on the other and repeating when the other reformed. Splashes of silver spilled on the floor.

Kyle Reese let out a volley of bullets at the other Weaver chasing John, giving her a minor annoyance as she ran after her prey.

John didn't even notice that he passed Derek Reese as he emerged from cover. As Weaver closed in on his position, Derek pulled the pin from one of his grenades and counted to five. When he got to three, he threw the grenade into the Weaver and watched as her weakened flesh absorbed the grenade into her midsection and exploded seconds later.

There were only Cameron's two remaining now.

The two Weavers took note that their collective strength was diminishing and reformed into one Weaver. She formed her arms into large knives as she eyed the fast-approaching John Connor.

John let out a few more plasma bursts before a sharp pain erupted into his left shoulder.

"John!" Cameron yelled.

Weaver retracted her arm and Cameron got a brief moment where she shoved the rod into Weaver's midsection and made an upward ripping motion. Weaver struggled to reform, giving Kyle another chance to empty whatever grenades he had left into Weaver.

As the smoke cleared out, John got to his feet and put pressure on the new wound on his shoulder.

"John, are you okay?"

John was immediately eye-to-eye with Cameron once again. It was clear that she was no longer playing around when it came to watching out for him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." John said. "Did we get her?"

"Her alloy was too weak to reform. And there's no trace elements left of her. She's gone." Cameron said.

"Where's Danny?" John asked as he took a few steps. Next to him, the Reese brothers observed the rest of the room for any signs of trouble.

"There." Kyle pointed.

John saw Azrael at the other end of the catwalk above, carrying the unconscious Danny Dyson on his shoulder.

"Damn it!" John yelled. "I'm going after him."

Before Cameron could protest, John took off running in their direction. He jolted past the wreckage of what was left of the room, his new plasma weapon at the ready.

His pursuit took him outside, where he watched Azrael as he put Danny into a Resistance Humvee that was parked outside.

_I can't let this happen! Not now!_

Cameron was not far behind, but she wasn't fast enough to stop John from latching himself to the back of the vehicle as it sped off.

"Oh, so that's how it is." Cameron remarked to no one in particular as she took a moment to reflect.

* * *

><p>"This is Alpha Three Two. We need immediate medical evacuation. Six line to follow." Derek Reese spoke into the tank's radio. Kyle Reese continued to rally the remaining survivors outside as Derek conducted himself in the makeshift command center. From the tiny window nearby, Derek noted Kishin and the older Archivist struggling to understand what happened.<p>

Outside, explosions erupted into the landscape as Century came crumbling downward in symphony of timed detonations.

"I say again, we need -"

Derek was interrupted by the tiny girl who dropped from the tank's main ceiling hatch, landing on all fours with absolute grace and dexterity.

"Allison, you have a lot of ex-" Derek said, still convinced that Cameron and Allison Young were one in the same.

Somewhere, the more paranoid and deceased Derek Reese was turning in his grave. Cameron thought.

"I need this." Cameron said.

"Need what?" Derek asked as Cameron went over to the main tank controls. After a few manipulations, the tank suddenly became active.

Derek panicked. "What are you doing?"

Cameron didn't listen to him as she reached for a radio of her own and spoke the call sign for the Archivist.

"Do you have access to mobile satellite coverage in the area?"

"Yes, but it will take a moment for me to set up." The old man barked back.

"I need you track a humvee that is moving eastbound on the main highway."

"How can I tell which one is the one you're looking for?" The Archivist responded. Outside the window, Derek saw the old man get out a device that resembled a laptop computer and began typing into it.

Cameron thought for a moment before responding. "It's the one being chased by a tank." She replied as she kicked the tank into high gear and sent Derek falling flat on his back.

* * *

><p>John held on for dear life and the humvee accelerated more and more until it was at, what he guessed, to be sixty miles an hour. The highway was dark and grim, as black as death. Inside, Azrael knew of John's presence but made no effort to swerve or divert him.<p>

As John toiled with the laws of physics, struggling to keep hold with his injured shoulder.

Suddenly, a large decayed building to John's right was destroyed in one loud explosion. John watched in curiosity as the large tank that they had used before emerged from the rubble with a smoking cannon.

Cameron accelerated the tank as it merged onto the loading ramp. Derek, after failing to reason with her for several minutes now, reluctantly took position in the gunner's chair.

John let out a generous gulp.

_My life needs to stop being so interesting._

* * *

><p><strong>This one took a lot out of me. I decided to go a different way with this chapter than I originally intended - and I hope that it has the desired effect. I have my fingers crossed that hopefully no gaping plot holes have emerged thus far. But if they do, let me know. And spelling errors! Keep your eyes peeled for those little annoyances that seem to evade spell check. Every. Goddamn. Time.<strong>

**By the way, Weaver's not dead. But you knew that already, didn't you?**


	21. Fire in the Sky

_"We're currently receiving reports of escalated crime rates in the downtown area, stretching from vandalism, theft, assault, and others... As of right now, the LAPD is urging people to exercise extreme caution and remain in their homes until more information can be gathered. Back to you, Connie."_

_"Thanks, Tom. The drastic spike in the temperature across the United States and Europe may finally have an explanation. Lead physicists at Stanford University have theorized the increase in electromagnetic activity in the Earth's atmosphere to be attributed to a series of unstable gravity fluctuations that have begun only recently and will be expected to return to normal within the next two weeks. While this theory has been generally accepted among the academic community, there are competing views from other research institutes, particularly Oxford University, that this may be a sign that conditions will fluctuate within the next forty-eight hours."_

_"I'm sorry to interrupt, Connie. We just received breaking news from the White House. Twelve minutes ago, the White House Press Secretary has just announced that martial law will soon be enacted in Los Angeles County. No word as to whether or not this has anything to do with the increased interest in the Sarah Connor case. We'll be standing by for more information as the story develops. Back to you."_

* * *

><p><strong>TWO DAYS UNTIL UNIVERSAL COLLAPSE<strong>

Even though the sun was rising somewhere in the West, it would be impossible to tell with the murkiness of the morning sky.

Even the man couldn't tell from where he was standing on top of a red beam on what would be a famously huge casino that was currently under construction. And he could see everything. His expensively tailored suit and coat flapped in the breeze.

Beside him, his companion remained motionless, observing the landscape along with him. She was a foot less in height than he, but retained more physical might and prowess. Her dress was more casual, resembling her more of a modest secretary to an onlooker. And, like him, she wasn't human.

The tip-tap motion of raindrops began to fall down all around them as they watched in unison at the streets below.

His purpose, he maintained was about to be fulfilled. This was his role in the grand scheme of things.

"It amazes me." He spoke finally, in a language that was far from anything English, or even human thought. "I know exactly what will happen when we destroy this world, but I have no intention of stopping it. Even if we go with it."

His companion nodded.

"I am... weary." He turned toward her. "You've protected me all these millennia. It would be my greatest honor for you to see it through with me."

Amidst the falling raindrops, the terminator extended her arm and directed his attention to the street.

"Here she comes." The man said as he watched intently below.

A loose piece of newspaper whipped past them, carried by the heavy winds that would surely turn into a storm shortly.

But they had already vanished without a sound before it could even reach them.

* * *

><p><strong>DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES<strong>

Sarah Connor had many moments of self-realization in her life. The first had been the birth of her son, making the experience in 1984 come full circle. The second had been when she first read the short story "A Sound of Thunder" during John's time in middle school, and now the arrival of a naked girl who looked remarkably like Cameron.

But even in this circumstance, "A Sound of Thunder" had been a much more surreal experience when she read it. John, in a interesting choice of irony, had to write a book report on it and Sarah - trying to do her best to play the role of watchful mother - took time to read it herself. Granted, it wasn't the first story she'd experienced dealing with time travel, but it's effects on her were profound.

In the story, a man was sent back in time to serve as a safari to big game hunters who sought out the ultimate prey, something long lost to both time and human encounter: dinosaurs. The intentions behind this were pure capitalist, but it was still a controlled affair. Hunters were only allowed to kill carefully selected dinosaurs that were already doomed to either sickness or Darwinism. The fear for altering history was so great that the paths used in the prehistoric era were highlighted for use. But in an innocent error that results in him stepping off the path, the man steps on a butterfly. And upon returning to his present time in the future, the flow of history had been completely altered - allowing for a new society, a new culture, and even a new language that was spoken by all. The story ended with his companion, realizing that the world he knew was gone forever, grabs his rifle and releases "a sound of thunder," presumably killing the man, himself, or both with his weapon. The story ends before it was clarified.

John, still in his phase of disbelief to his mother's warnings, dismissed the stories underlying message and ramifications. But not for Sarah. It stuck with her since that day.

And in that moment, when a bullet cracked into the windshield of her stolen vehicle, that it came boiling to the surface once more.

Sarah swung the jeep to one side, sending it careening parallel with the sidewalk. She flung the door open and took cover behind it as Allison Young shot off two rounds that caused dents near Sarah's neck.

It had been a long pursuit from the mental hospital, starting with Allison breaking into a foreclosed department store and now into downtown LA. Sarah had followed, cautiously at first, but it was when Allison, in her newly acquired hoodie, pants, and athletic boots, made her as she exited that things got dicey.

After all, a woman in white hospital clothing tends to stick out - even behind the wheel of a vehicle. And that moment brought her to now.

Sarah waited for the lull in Allison's steam of gunfire before she got on her feet and returned fire while switching cover to a nearby magazine stand.

It was only seven in the morning, but the busy streets immediately dissolved into panic. Sarah prayed that the police would be slow in their response time. Another volley of bullets hit the wood and merchandise, sending a flurry of paper and wood chips into the air. The keeper of the stand was already gone at that point. But the stand wasn't empty.

"She's firing wide." A familiar voice spoke.

Sarah turned her head to see the figure of Charley Dixon leaning against the stand next to her, eyes fixed on the magazine in his hands that he appeared to be reading.

"She's not trying to hit you. Just scare you." Charley said in near monotone.

"I'm not trying to hit her either." Sarah retorted, checking the content of her clip. "I need her alive."

"She knows who you are. Use that to your advantage." Charley took a moment to peek around the corner before returning to his reading material. "She's reloading. Go."

_Taking advice from a dead man... I guess I could do worse._

Sarah let out a sigh as she got back on her feet.

* * *

><p><em>I guess I could do worse.<em>

The humvee continued to accelerate as John tightened his grip on the exterior. He could feel warm liquid accumulating in his shirt, stemming from the deep wound in his shoulder.

In that moment, the humvee swerved to one side - desperate to rid itself of John. The young Connor grunted as his head slammed briefly into the carriage. Cameron, coming up slowly from behind in her tank, was not amused. She retaliated with a warning shot in front of the humvee's path, making the eroded highway slightly tremble in doing so.

_No, no. I guess not. This is pretty fucking bad._

Azrael, if he had any sense of logic, would receive the message that Cameron could take him out if he tried another attempt on John. But that would come at the cost of Danny's life as well. John was at an impasse. There was no logical solution to this dilemma. No clear cut path to victory without collateral damage.

John knew he couldn't think his way out of this one. But that may have been the point. Even before he knew it, he reached into his pocket and retrieved the knife that Allison gave him and jammed it into the humvee's canvas.

"The hell is he doing?" Derek yelled as Cameron remained transfixed on the humvee.

"He's trying to gain access to the humvee's interior." Cameron replied dryly.

"There's a triple eight in there. What is he trying to accomplish?"

"I don't know." Cameron said. "But a diversion may be in order."

"Assisted suicide. Just the thing I signed up for. Christ." Derek took a moment to wipe the sweat building up in his eyebrow.

"Thirteen degrees. Northbound." Cameron said as Derek reluctantly set up the coordinates, sending the whining cannon into position. "Fire."

The cannon roared to life as a large shell exploded into the remainder of nearby skyscraper, raining large chunks of debris in the humvee's direction. Azrael began methodically evading the crucial chunks that would hinder his path. But that could stop the smaller bits from denting onto the roof and siding.

The humvee never slowed or veered, but the ongoing drama was enough for John to continue cutting and slip in the opening he's created.

He was in.

* * *

><p>Allison knew that she was compromised as Sarah began her desperate charge toward her. She was quick to react and began running down the street. But she wasn't quick enough. If there had been anything on the planet that the Connor bloodline had down at the genetic level, it was running. Sarah tackled the younger time traveler to the ground and fiercely grabbed her ankle.<p>

"Enough!" Sarah yelled as she struggled to keep Allison to the ground.

With a determined grunt, Allison swung her body to the side and kicked Sarah in the face. The shock from the blow loosened Sarah's grip and allowed Allison enough of a window to get up and keep moving. Sarah shook off the pain and was soon right behind her.

Allison knew that Sarah would catch her again within the next few moments, but that's when she saw another opportunity.

Oblivious the situation near her, an older woman on that same sidewalk was busy chatting on her cell phone as the pursuit found her.

Allison quickly took the woman as a human shield and squeezed off her last remaining rounds into the brick wall closest to Sarah. It was enough to disorient the elder Connor, even as Allison's pistol let out its final desperate click, Sarah took cover by instinct. Even as she recognized her folley, Allison saw Sarah begin another charge and threw her screaming hostage at her. The woman tried to cling to Sarah as she fell to the ground, but Sarah quickly drove past her and let her unceremoniously slam to the ground.

Allison had already entered the warehouse as Sarah followed, loaded weapon at the ready.

* * *

><p><em>Dizzy... I feel really dizzy.<em>

John felt his now drenched shirt and applied pressure to his wound. He'd lost a lot more blood than he though. He silently cursed Weaver and prayed it wouldn't be a problem.

But, despite his setback, he was now directly behind Danny, who was sprawled out in the backseat - completely unconscious. Azrael was completely focused on Cameron and hadn't noticed his entry. Or maybe he had but chose to let it play. John hoped it was the former.

Now was the question of what came next. A question John didn't exactly have an answer to.

Reaching over to Danny in the darkness of the vehicle, John carefully checked his pulse to see that he was still alive and pondered what to do next.

That when he heard the screaming erupt overhead.

"Hunter Killers inbound." Derek yelled as he struggled to readjust his line of sight inside the tank's cabin. "They're coming right at us."

True to his word, a pair of Hunter Killers seared through the clouds above, passing the tank entirely. But Cameron knew that they were coming back around to unleash their payload. Their little chase in the ruins of Downtown Los Angeles hadn't gone unnoticed after all.

Cameron scanned the skies above and calculated the path and trajectories of the incoming fire. She began swerving the tank accordingly, taking the most evasive action possible as the HKs began their descent.

Derek heard the large whine of the HKs' miniguns come to life. Even with the exterior plating and Cameron's driving, the bullets rained down heavy on the tank, producing a variety of new dents in the siding. The HKs completed their fly over and Cameron noticed that they were circling around once more for another attack.

"Elevate eighty-seven degrees. One hundred and thirteen eastbound." Cameron said calmly and Derek responded in kind to the controls. "Fire."

The main cannon came to life again, like a vengeful spirit who had just been awoken from a long slumber. Cameron watched with slight satisfaction as the shell found one of the HKs and ripped through its main cabin effortlessly. The turbines caught fire immediately and triggered a massive explosion seconds later.

"How did you learn to shoot like that?" Derek shot Cameron an inquisitive look. Cameron knew her charade as Allison Young was coming to an end. But she didn't care.

Despite everything, Cameron's victory was short-lived. From the smoke in the sky, two more HKs joined the remaining one. There were three now.

"Kill one and two more show up. They're like goddamn cockroaches." Derek said grimly.

Without warning, a pair of high caliber rockets streamed at the tank, coming from both the new HKs.

"Hang on." Cameron said. Jerking the steering gauge to one side, the tank swerved in a ninety degree angle. Derek was already forced out of his seat and tumbling around the tank's interior.

The rockets narrowly missed the tank, instead hitting the concrete to the front and side. It didn't destroy them, but it almost brought the tank to a complete halt.

Cameron watched in horror as the humvee carrying John and Danny sped off on the highway. Even without her newfound friends in the sky, she would be hard pressed to regain her previous momentum in the chase.

"They're not playing around anymore." Derek exclaimed as he pointed to the circling HKs above them. "Those Hunter Killers are going to tear us apart if we stay out in the open like this."

Without warning, Cameron jerked the controls in another slanted direction and punched down on the accelerator.

"What are you doing?" Derek barely croaked out as the tank crashed through the highway's barricades. He let out another yelp as Cameron unceremoniously launched the tank onto the streets below, landing with heavy impact.

"Shortcut." Cameron said as she watched the HKs struggle to maneuver to her position. The tight spacing of the inner city would discourage aerial attacks, eventually forcing her pursuers away. But she had a new problem.

Cameron was in one of the most dangerous urban environments this side of J-Day. She didn't really care. She pushed the tank forward.

* * *

><p>Sarah scanned the warehouse, weapon at the ready. Rounding one corner after another, and shifting cover between large crates of supplies, she was eagerly awaiting Allison's next move.<p>

"I'm not here to hurt you." Sarah yelled out. "You know who I am. I just want to talk."

"She just came from the future not too long ago and she's already being chased around by some crazy woman wearing all-white clothes." Charley Dixon exclaimed while leaning against one of the warehouse walls, playfully eating an apple. "I don't think she's in the right frame of mind."

Sarah shot Charley a glare before proceeding further into the warehouse. She stopped briefly to observe various noises coming from the second floor and carefully made her way to the staircase nearby. Charley, in his one comical nature, followed right behind her - almost gleefully taking in the scene.

"I take that back. She's not as confused as we think she is." Charley said. "She's setting up a trap for you around that next corner, right about... now."

True to his word, Allison, lead pipe in hand, rounded the corner with lightning ferocity and took a powerful swing toward Sarah's midsection.

Sarah detected the blow immediately, and quickly ducked out of the pipe's radius. Allison's strike hit only air, but she readied the pipe for a second blow toward Sarah's head.

Sarah's free hand grabbed the pipe and easily overpowered the young time traveler's grip on the makeshift weapon, ripping it from her hands and delivering a sweeping kick to Allison's legs. As she came tumbling to the floor, Sarah used the pipe and pressed it on Allison's neck and immediately put her body on top of hers.

"Stop it! Stop it!" Sarah yelled as Allison continued to squirm and struggle against her superior grip. "Girl, so help me..."

Allison stopped her struggle and met eyes with Sarah for the first time. "You don't understand. This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Make me understand." Sarah growled.

"There's no time." Allison pleaded. "It's already started."

"What the hell are you?" Sarah asked, becoming increasingly aware that this girl, despite sharing the same look, was the farthest thing away from Cameron that she had expected.

"I'm not the enemy."

Sarah's ears perked away from the conversation. The sirens she had been ignoring the distance were finally growing louder and louder.

"The police are here." Sarah said as she peeled her body off Allison's and tossed the pipe away. She rechecked the content of her pistol's magazine.

"What does that mean?" Allison remained laying on the ground, still eyeing Sarah warily.

"It means that you can come with me if you want to see this through." Sarah said, imposing her figure against the light - casting a shadow over Allison. "Or you can stay here and probably die."

* * *

><p><em>What in the hell is she doing?<em>

John watched in horror as he saw the tank come under fire from several Hunter Killers and subsequently barrel off the side of the freeway. John gulped. He would have to act on his own from now on.

Azrael was still transfixed on the road, occasionally reaching into his mobile device to, what John was assuming, coordinate the search for the renegade tank with whatever Skynet assets he still had at his disposal.

_That must've been the reason behind the Hunter Killers suddenly appearing in this region._

John made another mental note that this T-888 was the farthest thing from ordinary that he'd ever dealt with. He couldn't be underestimated any longer.

But John still had his eyes on the device itself. It looked somewhat similar to a Blackberry phone he and his mother used in the past, and, from the looks of it, it was accessible to a human user - utliziing commands and directions written in English. It occurred to John that it must've been made specifically for his brother.

And if that was the case... he could use it.

A large rumbling occurred somewhere in the distance. John looked out of the window to the east and saw a building crumble. Emerging from the smoke, a large behemoth came roaring from it.

From below the highway, Cameron was still chasing them.

"Six shells left." Derek said over the increasing background noise. "We lost the HKs, but we got terminators straight ahead."

Small arms fire began to riddle the side of the tank moments later. Derek didn't want to think about how terrible the tank must've looked on the outside by now.

Several T-600s crawled out of the urban darkness and populated the long deserted and broken streets. Wordlessly, Cameron ignored their attacks and continued on her path back to John, crushing several underneath the weathered treads. A greeting from one terminator to another.

Putting her acceleration back to a competitive number, Cameron finally returned back to the undercarriage of the highway, and with a quarter mile distance, Cameron calculated, ahead of her prey.

Without need for aiming, Cameron fired the next shell at one of the columns still holding the highway above the destroyed and forgotten streets. And before the smoke could fully set in, she sent the tank crashing through it moments later - completely destroying it.

Azrael felt the disturbance, but with his speed set at maximum, he had little time to react as part of the highway collapsed in front of him.

Taking advantage of the chaos, John leapt into the back seat next to Danny and snagged the device that Azrael had used to engineer his destruction. He quickly retreated before Azrael could take full notice, or at least John hoped.

Hammering the brakes down, the T-888 swerved his vehicle flawlessly around the instant depression Cameron had created.

But Cameron hadn't been intending for that to be her only ploy. Her cannon roared once more, attacking another pillar ahead and ramming it with maximum ferocity.

_Four shells remaining._ Cameron reminded herself.

John held onto the vehicle's canvas as Azrael began his next swerve around the newest hole in the highway. He immediately began tinkering with Azrael's device as the vehicle regained its composure. Navigating its simplified interface, John was almost thankful that it was more user-friendly than he thought. But, then again, it may have been Alexander's intention for John to use the device at some point. The thought only lasted a split second, but it reminded John that he needed to find his brother once this was over.

The interface was a standard programming algorithm, probably reading like Greek to most people who could access it. But for John, it was like riding a bike. Programming code was an art he'd grown accustomed to. As his mother used to say: _"Be a jack of all trades and a master of none. Know a little about a lot, but not a lot about a little." _

The screen was divided into a variety of programs that subdivided into other categories. Not unlike the folders he'd arranged on his own computer. Quickly diving in and out of each interface, he found one that stood out: Coordinating Units. Scrolling his finger across the screen, a picture of a Hunter Killer cropped up - followed by a prompt for coordinates for... what appeared to be an missile attack coming from the Hunter Killers from before. John looked around the cabin of the humvee nervously before he returned his attention to the screen. He wasn't sure of how he could get an indication of where they were.

John heard a low rumble as Cameron knocked down another pillar, prompting Azrael to evade in kind. John observed the buildings and landscapes nearby. He took a moment to wipe the sweat away from his forehead, but that's when he noticed the red liquid that had begun trickling down his arm. His dizziness returned briefly, but he continued to shake it off. He looked back at the module only to see that there were... two of them. And they were blurry. John carefully shifted his body to the floor.

He was... tired now.

"Give it to me." John flared his eyes to see had Danny regained consciousness... just barely.

"How would you-" John said weakly.

"Give it to me." He repeated, motioning to the device with his hand.

A wordless exchange occurred between the two young men. John knew that he trusted Danny. And, and John weakly applied pressure to his own wound, he knew that the young Dyson was more likely to achieve their common goal of survival at that moment. With his non-blood soaked hand, John gave the module to Danny and slowly sank back down to where he was sitting.

Another loud burst. Another rumble. Cameron was still hard at work trying to deter Azrael. But it was just background noise now.

Danny made several quick motions with his hand on the device. He took a brief look out the window, estimated their current location, and began punching in several characters into the device's screen. Taking a deep breath, he made one exagerrated push on one of the keys before handing the device back to John.

"Grab hold of something. We only have a few seconds." Danny said as he sat up and painfully strapped himself in with his seat belt. John summoned whatever focused he had left stretched out his legs to push on the walls and fiercely grabbed one of the crevices of the door with both his hands.

There was a loud explosion. And John felt the humvee shift its internal gravity as it was launched onto its side. And then again. And then again.

* * *

><p><em>"John... John..."<em>

It was a soft voice. A feminine voice. John felt warmness all over his body. But it sooned turned sour. And hot.

"John!"

John opened his eyes and saw the flames around him. His insides ached and he knew that his nose was definitely broken from the impact. His body was awkwardly lunged over from where the humvee had landed, straight. He frantically began to steady himself as the flames began to dominate his vision. He looked around to see the door had been opened on Danny's side, but his remained ajar. He reached up and tried to open the handle, but it remained in its slightly cracked open state. He kicked at it desperately as the smoke began to fill the cabin.

John gave up that option and considered his next move. But his vision was getting more blurry by the second. And the smoke wasn't helping either. John buried his face in his hands, giving himself the impression that it might help steady out. Or at least give him comfort before the humvee explodes.

The door behind him opened inexplicably, almost directly responding to his woes. And a pair of hands fiercely grabbed him from behind and began pulling him away from the nightmare.

Coughing and weezing, John felt himself being dragged for about twenty feet before being set down behind the confines of the heavily-damaged tank that had zealously pursued him. They were no longer on the highway... the HK's attack must have sent them careening off the side just like the tank had earlier. And, with the newfound throbs in his head and body, it certainly felt the case.

"Listen to me." The siloeutte of Derek Reese entered his cloudy vision. "Listen! We're going to get you out of here. Danny's safe but the tank's gone. You did real good, kid. Real stupid, but it worked."

Derek looked around as he put pressure on John's shoulder. "We're still in hostile territory. We called in to our friends back at Century, but it will still take some time."

John took offense to the fact that he may be rendered unconscious once more. "Help me up."

Another pair of hands reached down and grabbed one of his arms as Derek grabbed the other. Danny was having as much trouble as John was keeping his composure as he and Derek lifted John quickly to his feet.

"You good?" Derek asked as John stumbled in one spot.

_No._

"Yeah." He replied, trying his best to mask his current state.

"Good." Derek said, handing him a rifle. "We're going to have to fortify this spot until backup gets here."

"Let's get to it." Danny said, getting a second wind as he locked and loaded his own weapon. John hoped the same would go for him.

Loud bursts erupted into the air as Cameron got on the tank's main gun and began bathing their surroundings in orange light. John took notice of the several T-600s firing back at her, and closing in around them in every direction.

The humvee finally gave out and exploded, forcing John to shudder where he stood.

_Where was Azrael?_

Weapon at the ready, John began firing behind the heavily-rusted and diminished remains of an old minivan. In the past, he was faster. It was automatic. But here... it was a chore. His breathing was labored, his bandaged shoulder still ran thick with blood that escaped the hastily-made bandage. He was running on fumes now... and he wasn't going to make it.

_Maybe... maybe... If I can save Danny... Maybe that's what I could do. When I die, he can take over. Do what's necessary. There doesn't need to be a General John Connor. Maybe this can be the fate I can make... and maybe it can be a better one._

Using his troubled vision, John sent out a small volley of rounds into a T-600's skull. It fell to the ground and struggled for a few moments before ceasing function entirely. A small miracle, if he had time to think about it.

_Another set of hands and feet. Another trigger and another target. This is what I can be._

John got to his feet and began laying more suppressing fire as he shifted to another firing position. Rounds seared past him as he mindlessly knelt down against a collapsed chimney. To his brief north and west, Derek and Danny were doing similar actions. But they too were feeling their own troubles as the T-600s swarmed like insects. They were running out of time.

A loud click caught John's attention.

"I'm out." Cameron yelled as she jumped from the top of the tank and hit the ground running. Withdrawing her titanium rod, she threw it with maximum force against a nearby terminator's skull before taking out two pistols on her belt and made a daring leap through the air, unloading round after round and causing two more enemy terminators to fall as she landed gracefully to the ground.

But then a loud scream entered the night air, complementing the large amount of enemy fire. Derek fell down grunting as his shoulder briefly exploded in red.

The action deliriously caused John to stand up in a desperate ploy to assist his uncle. He got out of cover and began tagging a T-600 that was approaching Derek, allowing his uncle to crawl to a new position and resume firing.

Something caught John's eye. As Cameron's graceful methods of fire continued to hold back several of the T-600 attackers, a pair of red eyes was fast approaching her from behind.

_Azrael._

"Cameron!" John yelled, shifting his fire to the rogue T-888. Azrael was stunned for a moment, realizing that his sneak attack had been foiled. Cameron took the opportunity to retrieve her metal rod and jam it deep into his neck, and quickly decapitated him shortly after.

_Something is wrong with this picture._

John continued to stare at Azrael's face as his remains littered the ground. He blinked and realized that the enemy he'd just shot at wasn't there at all. John was staring at the blank face of a T-600 in his stead.

But then a searing pain erupted in his stomach. For a moment, John saw nothing but dots. He looked down and touched the new hole in his stomach. The gunfire escaped his hearing as John heard what he thought was angels singing in the distance.

What happened in the next few moments, John wasn't sure. But it was when Cameron grabbed him and forced him to the ground that he regained some measure of focus. Large amounts of pain also helped to bring him back to reality. Cameron wasn't being the least bit gentle as she applied pressure to John's wounds.

"This is it, Cam." John grunted, tasting the familiar metallic flavor of his own blood.

"No." Cameron said, ignoring the blaring conclusion on her HUD that John was right.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't let them take him." John swallowed some of the blood accumulating rapidly in his mouth.

"Please be quiet."

"And I'm sorry for a lot of things." John said, trying to meet Cameron's gaze. Beside him, Danny had carried the wounded Derek over to their position a few feet away.

"But you're always there." John coughed.

**HERE LIES **

**GENERAL JOHN CONNOR**

**1985-2029**

**"NO FATE BUT WHAT WE MAKE FOR OURSELVES"**

The image entered Cameron's HUD instantly, causing her face to twitch. She felt distress course throughout her main processes.

"Sometimes history needs to repeat itself." John continued. "Maybe this John Connor die as a man, nothing more."

"You can't die, John." Cameron said, a struggling tear held firm in the corner of her eye. "I won't let it."

The last punctual image that John saw was electricity filling the air. Various bits of light appeared, fighting for dominance.

"What the hell's happening?" Derek yelled, clutching his shoulder with one hand and aiming his weapon at the approaching T-600s with the other.

Danny looked around, equal parts befuddlement as well as curiousity. "It looks like we're going for a ride."

The displacement bubble formed all around them rapidly as the T-600s began their last march toward their position.

John felt something soft and moist touch his lips as the air around them turned into a white light.

* * *

><p><em>"Mom's always going to be that way. But she did have a point. You can't just sneak up on people like that - especially in the morning." John said as he pushed the grocery store basket at a snail's pace. This was the before time. Right when they were getting settled after the jump iniatially.<em>

_John was confused. He was dreaming, yet fully self aware of the memory he was entrenched in. At that moment, everything that had just occurred in 2029 didn't matter. It was a fog. A non-issue. John looked around the store again before returning to the moment at hand._

_"I wasn't trying to sneak up on her. I was just coming off my nightly patrol." Cameron replied._

_"Well, you're naturally quiet. Maybe you should start, I don't know, exaggerate your movements a little." John said, taking a moment to take a dozen cans of vegetables from a nearby shelf and load them in the cart._

_"So, you want me to change." Cameron said blatantly._

_John stopped the basket again. "No. I'm just saying there are better ways to blend in. To get along with people. Sometimes you just have to make compromises, even when you think they don't matter in the short term."_

_"What is the short term?" Cameron tilted her head._

_"The here and now." John explained, grabbing a loaf of bread. "The long term is where all the actions you made in the present, you know, pay off."_

_John clutched his knuckles and rotated his shoulder. It was painful for a moment but then vanished instantly. They continued walking down the aisle, passing an elderly woman and her grandson._

_"Sort of like a financial investment." Cameron concluded._

_"Yeah, yeah! That's a good example." John said, he felt pain in his abdomen for a moment, but that too vanished. "People's emotions are like something you can put a lot into early on and get good things out later."_

_"Thank you for explaining." Cameron said. They rounded a corner and entered the fruit section with John continuing to do his rounds up the nearby aisle. It took him a moment to realize that Cameron was no longer with him. He turned his head briefly to see that she had become transfixed by something on a display._

_John abandoned his cart for a moment to see what it was that subject to the fascination of a time-travelling terminator. Standing next to her, John was almost tempted to laught but wisely refrained from doing so._

_"Cameron, did you want us to get you something while we're here?"_

_Cameron continued straring at the dozen of strawberries that resided in the plastic container. "No."_

_"Are you sure?" John said, slightly smirking._

_"Our financial resources are scarce at the moment. We needn't buy things that we don't need."_

_"Well, economics 101." John said, picking up a box of strawberries. "The standard business model in a capitalist society is the proper allocation of resources to suit-"_

_"Wants and needs." Cameron finished as John put the strawberries in the basket. "But we don't need strawberries. We should only purchase items that are more critical to our operation."_

_"I don't think of this so much of a purchase." John said, prompting another tilt of Cameron's head. "I think it's more of an investment."_

_Cameron's face remained neutral, much to John's disappointment. He was actually proud of himself for not taking a more immature approach to the situation. _

_Without a word, Cameron reached down to try and put the strawberries back where they belonged. But, John stopped her hand from advancing. For a moment, she looked at him in confusion before retreating it to her side. _

_"Wants and needs." Cameron repeated, tilting her head._

_The pain in his stomach and shoulder imploded, causing John to frantically clutch both. The warmness of the memory was over, he was in new territory now. John was on his knees in front of the tiny terminator that had turned his world upside down._

_"I... don't know what you want." John said, his voice souring in pain._

_"You don't need to." Cameron countered defiantly, coming closer to John._

_John looked Cameron deep in her eyes._

_"I'm... a dead man." John said, remembering in full the events that brought him here. "I'm spent. Gone. I'm in over my head and people are dying for it."_

_Cameron's voice began moving for a few moments, but all John could feel was echoes. But then a familiar automated voice filled his eardrums._

_**The number you have dialed could not be reached. Ensure the number you have is correct. Please hang up and try again.**_

_**_**The number you have dialed could not be reached. Ensure the number you have is correct. Please hang up and try again.**_**_

_**_**_**The number you have dialed could not be reached. Ensure the number you have is correct. Please hang up and try again.**_**_**_

_**Please hang up and try again...**_

_**Please hang up and try again...**_

_**_**Please hang up and try again...**_**_

_**Try again...**_

_**Try again...**_

_**Try again...**_

* * *

><p>Allison Young felt the chill of the afternoon air and zipped up her hoodie and propped the hood over the top of her haid. She put her arms under her armpits for warmth as Sarah joined her on the rooftop, zipping up the new leather jacket she's acquired from a local thrift store, along with a fresh black t-shirt and jeans.<p>

It had been a perplexing journey from the warehouse to this abandoned apartment building rooftop, but the common enemy of the Los Angeles Police Department formed a brief trust that brought them to this moment. And Sarah was eager to learn more from her new friend.

Both stared at the darkening sky for a few moments before the silence became too deafening.

"Storm's coming." Allison said.

"I already knew that." Sarah countered.

"Not this time. This time is different." Allison turned toward Sarah. "We don't have a lot of time."

"Look." Sarah pointed to the sky as several clouds began to swirl. "This isn't tornado season."

Sarah began walking fast to the edge of the building to get a better look at the sky as a reluctant Allison slowly followed from behind.

The clouds began to part in several places, allowing what appeared to be sunlight to pore through. But unlike sunlight, the light had a more orangeous glow, and it didn't pear down onto the ground below. It remained there - like an angry orange eye opening for the first time.

"What is that?" Allison asked.

Sarah stared in horror and amazement at the same time. A loose triangle formed in the sky from where the clouds had parted, right over Los Angeles. She immediately knew what it was.

"Three dots." Sarah said as lightning began to radiate among the clouds above them, ending with a large crack. "We need to go. Now."

* * *

><p><strong>This one was a long one coming. It went through MANY rewrites, to the point where it drove me insane for about a month. Transitioning from heavy, hard-to-write, action scenes wasn't an easy one. The majority of this chapter was a necessary evil in that I had to finish what I started from before. Hopefully it reads well with you guys and gives you a better picture to where the story is headed. The main villain makes his first appearance here. It's going to be an original creation, so don't think that it's another older version of John stalking behind the scenes.<strong>

**The next chapter is more character-intensive. Promise. Maybe. Fuck, I have ADD. I'll probably manage a sword fight in there somewhere. It's going to be a Sarah/Cameron dominate chapter. So get ready.**

**The story continues to survive mainly because of the helpful PMs and reviews that give me the opportunity to fix up some of the flaws in subsequent chapters. And it usually helps to spice up necessary scenes and, overall, making the story stronger for it. Keep it up! And spelling errors. If you see one, let me know.**


	22. Evolution

_"The purpose of this memorandum is to address the results requested on behalf of General Connor's 'L Project'. There is still no proof to indicate that the human genome can be manipulated in a way comparable to our machine counterparts. I think my opinion on this matter has been stated several times but now the evidence gathered throughout our most recent discovery regarding the appearance of the TOK715 and the subsequent diagnostic has now pointed to the contrary. All that remains is the application of our test results and bringing the possibility of human trial back online in the near future. It should be noted, the overall scheme of this operation still remains controversial among the staff and thus the attached appendix will require additional security personnel to reduce any more problems."_

_- Colonel Samantha Bylen, Delta Research and Development Chief, 2029_

* * *

><p><strong>RIVERSIDE COUNTY - 62 MILES FROM LOS ANGELES<strong>

A cool, wet breeze entered the Waffle House as James Ellison entered through the front door. A cheery greeting from a middle-age waitress livened the dim atmosphere. It was much-needed too. With the skies darkening outside and news about the end of the world swirling around, James took a moment to appreciate the courtesy. He also appreciated the near emptiness of the establishment as well.

"Can I help you get seated?"

James scanned the tiny diner before settling on a familiar two familiar faces, and an old man, sitting near a window.

"No, thank you. I'm with them." James said, pointing to Sarah Connor, Allison Young, and the elderly Danny Dyson - who was looking much better in a white dress shirt and a pair of slacks. The old man was casually sipping a fresh cup of coffee and reading a newspaper, barely giving his surroundings a notice. Sarah observed the murky skies outside while Allison stared uncomfortably at the table.

"Can I get you started with something to drink?" The same waitress asked as James took his own seat at the table. James was almost taken aback by the waitress's sudden appearance - almost seemingly appearing out of nowhere. _Must be desperate for a good tip on a day like this, _James thought.

"Water, please." Sarah said without glancing on the menu. James guess that they must've been here for only a few minutes.

"Coffee?" The waitress turned to Danny.

"Yes, ma'am." James said, loosening up the buttons on his suit as he sat down.

"I'll have a refill when you get the chance." Danny said with a sincere smile. "And get this young lady the biggest chocolate milkshake you got. Make sure you put all three on my bill."

"Okie-dokie. Be right back."

Allison gave Danny a reflective look before picking up a menu and gandering at all the food options before her. Sarah doubted that she may not know how what a lot of it was, much less a chocolate milkshake.

James tapped his fingers on the table for a few moments before breaking the silence.

"So, what's new?" James asked, exchanging an almost coy expression to both Sarah and Allison.

_Wait._ James could already tell that he was barking up a very complicated tree as his eyes settled on Allison, who gave a look of glee as a chocolate milkshake was placed on the table in front of her. _I thought she was a machine of some kind... machines don't eat. Or do they?_

The water and coffee followed promptly, and with another sincere smile, the waitress disappeared again. Sarah's eyes bore holes in her as she walked away.

"James, this is Danny Dyson." Sarah said as the old man's smile returned.

"Funny." James said, stirring creamer into his coffee. "Your college years must've done a number on you." Danny let out a small giggle, but was still transfixed on the newspaper. He wasn't buying it, but he still let Sarah continue.

"And the girl sitting next to you is Allison." Sarah said, motioning her head across the table.

"Hi." Allison said while sipping milkshake through a straw.

"Wait, wasn't her name-" James stopped mid-thought. "Jesus! You're human?"

Sarah nodded and marveled at James's bewilderment.

"I'm pretty sure you were a killer robot from the future last time I saw you."

"It's come up a few times." Allison replied sarcastically.

"She is from the future though... It's a long story." Sarah said, finally taking a sip from her water.

"So the world's going to hell outside, the government is barricading Los Angeles, Cameron is human now, and Danny Dyson is a senior citizen."

"That's about right." Sarah replied, fighting back a small accomplished smile.

"You're right. This couldn't be discussed over the phone. But I imagine you've got a lot of explaining to do."

"Let's get some food first." Danny finally spoke as he motioned to their returning waitress. "I'm famished."

"Do they have pancakes here?" Allison asked anxiously to which Danny nodded.

"Is there anything else I should know?" James asked.

"Yeah." Sarah said, brandishing a white strip. "I'm pregnant."

James sunk down in his seat as the waitress returned, ready to take their meal orders. It had only been twenty-four hours and he was already behind the times in the strange world that Sarah Connor lived in.

* * *

><p><strong>SOUTH AFRICA, NORTH WEST PROVINCE - COORDINATES UNKNOWN<strong>

"Every good story has a beginning. So let's start there. Again." The woman said as both she and Cameron paced the still fertile plains of what used to be a majestic country.

The woman took note of Cameron caution as they continued to walk down the trail. The sky was gone, still exhibiting the clouds of dust an decay that had been incurred since Judgment Day. But it was still clearer than anything that existed in California.

"Skynet has never patrolled in Africa." The woman said. "Arguably, there wasn't that much threat to tend to here to begin with. But it's never been a factor to begin with. A few tactical nukes did most of the damage here, but the political infighting that existed long before the war was what finished it off. There are still scavengers here and there, this stretch of land - however, has been all mine for many years. You're safe, everyone is safe."

Cameron listened to the statement, but her basic design would disagree with that statement.

"Story. Beginning." Cameron said as they walked.

"Yes." The woman said. "I imagine we got a lot to discuss. Starting with this space station we talked about before."

"Causality of events strongly suggest that by coming to the year 2027, that my chip was lost. And John was killed." Cameron bowed her head slightly before returning back to her normal posture.

"Were those two events related?"

"It is likely."

"But we don't know for sure."

"No..."

"So the combination of a timeline without John Connor, the death of his younger self, and the loss of your chip triggered this alternate timeline. As well as your reactivation."

"That is correct."

"And what of this woman you've been in contact with from distant timeline?" The woman stopped to admire a nearby stream, as did Cameron.

"Sirisha Nair. She was a primary researcher. And she helped me come back. So I could finish what I started."

"You have no idea how true that is." The woman said under her breath.

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked, tilting her head.

The woman continued. "Is that all you know about her? When was the last time you two spoke?"

"Century. But I've been unable to reach her since."

"Where do you think she is right now?"

"I don't know."

* * *

><p><strong>SOLARIS, LEVEL 12 - CITADEL QUADRANT<strong>

The murmurs of the chamber came to complete silence as the who headed the large imposing table at the dominant side of the room stood up and spoke.

"The board will come to order as additional testimony will be needed before we can resolve the issues at hand." The man's voice radiated throughout the hollow dome-shaped room. Immediately, all eyes were one him.

"Bring in Colonel Vargas and Dr. Nair. We will hear from them at this time."

Wordlessly, the two doors at the other side of the room opened, allowing both Colonel Davik Vargas and Dr. Sirisha Nair to enter. The doors closed behind them as they took standing positions in front of the main table. Davik Vargas was reputable man known throughout Solaris for his wet work and conduct that saw the thirty-year-old man rapidly promoted through the ranks. His mere presence at this proceeding indicated that something wasn't right.

"Please be seated."

Both the Colonel and Sirisha obeyed.

"The purpose of this conference, which will be known as highly classified material and protected under Commandant 0067, is to debrief and investigate the circumstances surrounding "Incident ION".

_The Skynet attack on the Research Ward of our station. _Sirisha thought. _The same event that brought death to all the people I'd known and worked with over the years. Whoever named it must've been an arrogant son of a bitch._

"Dr. Nair, you are henceforth the designated witness. Give the board a brief overview of what you wrote in your report."

Sirisha sighed. The board of chancellors was probably the most pretentious, misinformed group of old men within the great station. But they ran everything from the defense and research sector. They cared not for the precious thousands that populated the city below. Their placement was purely political. As much as they claimed to be students of history, preaching for decades on the lessons learned from power-mongering and constant war, they seized the opportunity to increase their status without hesitation.

"High Chancellor, it is as I had submitted. We can under attack around 0200 hours. Decades of research and progress was lost and virtually everyone within my department was killed, save for me."

"We know already of your suggested hypotheses regarding the sudden reactivation of the TOK715, but why go so far as to assist her in temporal displacement?" The chancellor asked, arching a pretentious eyebrow at the end of his sentence.

"It became clear that the attacking force was here for her and her alone. I had to get here away from the station before the citizens were to become their next targets."

"Have you maintained contact with her ever since?" Another old man chimed into the conversation.

"No." Sirisha lied.

"Admirable. Acting as you did probably saved a great deal of lives." The chancellor commended, removing his glasses. "Since the passing of the main research staff, that would now put you as the ranking officer in that department, correct?"

"Yes, Chancellor." Sirisha replied, actively confused.

"Then you should know was to what comes next is strictly confidential. In being privy to this, you will be promoted to active head of research and given an upgraded security clearance."

"What would you have me do?" Sirisha asked.

"Colonel." The main chancellor sounded off.

"The operation was a success, High Chancellor." Colonel Vargas replied, expressionless.

_Operation? _Sirisha thought.

"Incident ION was a military operation that had been the culmination of years of preparation." The head chancellor focused his attention back on Sirisha.

"Chancellor, what are you saying?" Sirisha asked, much louder than usual.

"Careful, Doctor." A chancellor from the far end of the table interrupted.

"Incident ION was a ruse." Colonel Vargas explained to Sirisha unapologetically. "The TOK's activation was reported to be near by Dr. Wong. And using the developmental research he acquired from her chip, a separate division was able to reconstruct the T-888 model terminators and use them to stage the attack."

"What?" Sirisha yelled in disbelief.

"Skynet hasn't been seen since the time before." The main chancellor said. "And it remain that way as long as she fulfills he purpose.

"This is barbaric! Why on earth would you authorize anything like this?" Sirisha struggled to fight back tears.

"Deception. It was the only way." Colonel Vargas said as he hung his head. Guilt, maybe, was finally overtaking him.

"I'm sorry, Doctor." The head councilman removed his glasses. "None of us wanted you to find out this way. But the fact of the matter is that we need your help."

"Help?" Sirisha balked. "After nearly having me killed? Are you mad?"

Her fuming was understandable and forgiven. Any ordinary citizen would be in chains for such rebellious conduct. This is when the gravity of what was requested of her began to set in. They really did need her.

"Our great society, all our gifts and blessings, we owe to what was found on her chip. Securing her return and bringing her back was the least we could do."

"**With her, all things are possible**." The board sounded off in unison, much like a praise given to a God or diety. Sirisha was familiar with the sentiment. After all, in this world, Cameron was seen as a goddess. The giver of life. Working on this project was considered to be the highest honor on Solaris.

"The only way to deceive a mind such as hers requires the real thing. To substitute it would promote too much risk." Colonel Vargas added.

"But to what end?" Sirisha countered, clearly feeling betrayed.

"Skynet's absence may be a blessing, but from what we've gathered from Dr. Wong is that their return may be imminent."

"How was I not told of this?" Sirisha's interest was peaking. She needed to know.

"Dr. Wong reported directly to us, just as you will as the new project head. Some things were kept only at our level."

"It is a prophecy, a new dawn for the era of humanity. And only she can give it to us."

"**With her, all things are possible**." The room sounded off again.

"You played your role phenomenally by giving her the choice to continue her role in the past. But she will return. And she will bear to us the greatest gifts of salvation. From the machines. From even ourselves."

**"With her, all things are possible."**

Sirisha tried to contain her rage and self-loathing. She desperately sought to contact Cameron at that very moment. She didn't even know what they would talk about, as she knew as little as Sirisha did. But Sirisha didn't like being manipulated. She needed to at least warn her.

The old men bickered and talked amongst themselves as the lights began to lightly flicker on the ceiling above them.

But that flickering soon took to darkness. Yelling overtook the room briefly before light was restored from the emergency generator.

The room fell silent as all eyes fell on the mysterious young female with brown hair who had appeared in the room with them, wearing a white uniform much different than that of the Solarian military.

"Who are you?" The main chancellor demanded. "What is the meaning of this?"

The lights turned to dark once more for a few moments before the light returned. Only this time, the female was gone. Everyone in the room exchanged glances as to what just happened. Sirisha took a few nervous looks at the corners of the room, looking for any sort of clue to what transpired.

"Colonel, get security in here right away. We have a-" The main chancellor yelled before he was cut off by sudden darkness.

_"Colder Hen Hill." _A small neutral voice echoed throughout the room.

That was when the screaming began. Sirisha took a few steps back and struggled to find somewhere to hide as the various signs of brutality were heard around her. Bones crunched, liquid was heard spraying, and no one could figure out what was going on. For the first time in a long time, Sirisha knelt down and prayed.

The lights returned. Sirisha looked up to see the mysterious female in front of her, coated in blood and looking down at her in curiosity. All around her, the various members of the board lie dead where they sat. Sirisha couldn't begin to count the variations to which they met their demise.

_"Urea Oh Yow?" _The girl spoke in a language that Sirisha didn't understand.

"W-What?" Sirisha said, trying to suppress her terror.

In the corner of her eye, she saw Colonel Vargas brandishing his pistol on the unknown attacker.

"Do not move!" The Colonel said, clearly unfazed by the gory scene around them - a small credit to his military bearing. "I will shoot!"

Wordlessly, and without turning her gaze away from Sirisha, the girl slowly lifted her arm in his direction. And just as silently, the Colonel dropped his weapon and lifted off his feet. Sirisha was stunned to see the officer floating in the air seven feet above where he stood, helplessly struggling to regain some control. The girl's hand slowly turned into a fist, and suddenly Vargas began coughing and gurgling.

"N-no. Don't." Sirisha pleaded as the Colonel began suffocating.

The girl still locked eyes with Sirisha, allowing her to make out the steel-blue eyes... The same as Cameron's._ Wait, could it be..._

"Please, let him go." Tears began to stream down her face. She had seen enough violence in her lifetime. She didn't need any more.

_"Soya Kit." _A male voice joined the conversation.

And just as fast, the girl forwarded her arm in a pushing motion and sent Colonel Vargas straight into the wall and a great velocity. The colonel fell to the ground shortly after, and Sirisha prayed he might still be alive.

A man clad in a suit that was largely resembled business attire walked into her vision. His body language was strange, his accent was also strange, but their language... was not anything remotely human.

"_What are you_?" Sirisha asked both of them.

The man stood at the side of his bloody companion and joined her in sizing up the frightened researcher.

"I am a great many things." The man said, switching over to plain English, but still retained a neutral accent. "I am not, however, an old man obsessed with social power as these men... were. But this... this is unusual. A world without John Connor that continues to flourish. Gone unnoticed."

"You're... you're him. They called you the 'Fallen One'." Sirisha gulped, realizing the information she acquired from Cameron's chip had come to life in front of her.

"No. But I am his representative. You can call me David. And this is Sierra Alpha." His expression remained blank, aside from the wide eyes. Sirisha still didn't know if she was going to die.

Within an instant, her nervous system stopped. The hands and feet that she commanded her entire life no longer responded to her. She watched in horror as Sierra Alpha commanded her body to sit down in the chair behind her. She was unable to move. The terminator had seized control of her nervous system and there was nothing she could do.

"Yes." David said, as if reading her thoughts. "She really does want to kill you. But I don't. I need your help." David took a seat next to her.

Sirisha's eyes darted back and forth frantically in their sockets.

David noticed this and took a second to shift his whole body so that he was now facing Sirisha face-to-face.

"Tell me about Cameron."

* * *

><p>"The man's name is David." Danny said, sliding the newspaper away from him on the table. All eyes were on him, save for Allison as her attention was on her fifth or sixth plate of food, Sarah couldn't be sure - she stopped counting after four. The rain was starting to hit the diner's windows a little harder than before. "And the machine's designated as Sierra Alpha."<p>

"What is their purpose?" Sarah asked, turning away from the window.

"Think of them as... overseers. Like a collection officer at a bank. They control the timelines that are subject to deletion."

"Why a man and a machine?" James asked, throwing his napkin in his plate. His burger remained only half-eaten.

"They're representatives from each faction. Man and machine. No one knows where their origin began, but it's been theorized that they've both been functioning for at least six million years."

"How is that even possible?" Sarah asked. "The war..."

"The war comes and goes." Danny interrupted with slight distain. "A winner and a loser are decided time and again, and then it resets. They are the cause of that 'reset'."

The table was silent. The very enthusiastic waitress dropped off a check by Danny and she thanked the table before leaving.

"How do they do it?" Sarah asked finally.

"They don't. They just paint the target. A much... higher power does the dirty work."

"Higher power? Like a god?" James asked, intrigued by the concept.

"He is only known as the 'Fallen One'. What little information we have on him carries that unique designation. And his function."

A thought dawned on Sarah. "So those three dots in the sky, was that them?"

"Yes." Danny said, throwing some bills on the table.

"How long have we got?" Allison joined in the conversation, still putting a good effort on the plates in front of her.

"Thirty-seven hours."

Sarah's eyes became wide, James noticed and shifted in his seat at the thought. Allison continued eating, completely unbothered. "That's not enough time."

"It's more than enough time." Danny said with a smile. "Our part is almost over. We leave the rest to... well, we leave the rest to the great general's planning."

"So, you and him organized this. John, in the future." Sarah concluded.

"Originally, we didn't plan on it. It never occurred. It was all just the simple concept of man's triumph over machine." Danny said. "But then _she_ happened."

* * *

><p>"How is John?" Cameron asked as the woman continued walking down the path.<p>

"He will still need a few more hours before he awakens." The woman replied, picking up a stone from the earth.

"You never answered my question from before." Cameron stepped in her path. "Who are you?"

"I already told you from before. My name is Samantha." The woman replied, tossing the rock into a nearby stream.

"You're one of the Seven." Cameron said blatantly. "The Seven Sentinels. The people John sent back."

Samantha sighed. "You know a little bit more than I expected."

"Why did you save us?" Cameron asked.

"It was in our collective interests." Samantha replied, seemingly bored of the conversation already.

"Just because of your actions-" Cameron began with a menacing tone.

"Doesn't mean that you won't kill me." Samantha finished. "I know. I believe it. And you're right, I'm not being completely honest with you."

Samantha began to look into the direction of the orange sunset. "It's quite funny. We can spend months, even years in this timeline, and it wouldn't measure to nothing but minutes in the one you and John both came from."

Cameron's head tilted, prompting a smirk on Samantha's face. "Time relativity is tough to calculate, but I've had some time on my hands as you can see. It's even more crucial when there's only days left in yours."

Samantha's smile faded. "Sierra Alpha knows." Cameron's expression shot back to neutral. "And _he_ knows. It's only a matter of time before they find you and John."

Cameron remained silent for over a minute as Samantha admired the sunset.

"I still don't know where Azrael has come from, but there's no denying it - his design, while primitive, is similar to the Fallen One's. Just like yours is similar to Sierra Alpha's."

"What can we do?" Cameron asked.

"That's the part I don't know." Samantha responded. "That's the part you have to figure out."

"I don't understand." Cameron said.

"I don't either. But a thousand John Connors and a thousand Danny Dysons planned for this moment right here to occur. And my role is only to facilitate that act."

Samantha sighed. "I am the Archetype. My job is to ensure John's current path continues."

"How did you know where to find us?" Cameron asked.

The Archetype turned to face Cameron. "I didn't. All I had was the time displacement equipment. It was activated by an unknown program and automatically set it to generate a bubble at your exact coordinates."

"I encountered it once before, on that space station." Cameron said conclusively. "What is it?"

"Only the late John Connor knows that. I'm pretty good with computers, so I know it left a digital residue that it wanted me to find specifically when I finally got it back under control and a bunch of injured young people appeared in my hut. It claimed to be his 'legacy'."

"I need to know more." Cameron said.

"You know what I know." The Archetype replied grimly. "But I theorize that it means you no harm. Just know that it's actively counteracting Azrael as he attempts to destroy this world. And if it wanted you dead... you wouldn't be talking with me right now."

Samantha shot Cameron a suspicious look as Cameron looked down at her feet. "I'm not the only one hiding something, am I?"

Cameron returned her gaze. "I'm not hiding anything."

"Young lady, I've had the great pleasure of raising two young daughters to adulthood and I could tell every single time when they were lying to me and I can see right through this." The Archetype said with authority, looking down at Cameron and putting her hands on her hips. "I've never grounded a terminator before, but I can start."

The comment was somewhat playful, but still serious enough to Cameron. She remained quiet and pondered what she would reveal next. "There's something else. There's a unknown presence in my chip. And it's trying to gain control."

Samantha thought for a moment at this revelation before answering with a smirk. "I think it's time we returned home."

* * *

><p>"So Azrael is an attempted creation of this God thing, right?" Sarah asked.<p>

"Correct." Danny answered.

"And Cameron is similar in design to this other terminator, Sierra Alpha?"

"Right again. And both are only a fraction to their maker's capabilities."

"But why?"

"We don't know."

"And where are you getting this information, exactly? Where did you draw these conclusions?"

Danny sighed. "When Cameron first came to us, we knew only three things about her. One: that she took the appearance of Allison Young." Everyone at the table stole a glance at the girl at the corner of the table attempting to shovel a half-pound burger into her mouth - completely oblivious to the conversation. "Two: that she was programmed to kill John Connor. And three: that she wasn't created by Skynet."

"What?" Sarah blinked.

"Again, we don't know where she came from. And I don't think Skynet did either. That's why, I think, that they helped her and allowed her to interrogate Allison. Her design was similar to the T-888s that they were manufacturing and she fell within their parameters. But that's only a theory. What we found in her chip when we subdued her, however, is everything we discussed so far. All this information regarding the endless war, the Fallen One, David, Sierra Alpha, it was all in there. She was the only one who had it. John already knew about this, don't ask how, but I didn't."

Danny examined Sarah, who began breathing harder than usual. "It all started with her. It always did."

Sarah rubbed her temple. "So Azrael and Cameron were copied after this system. Why?"

"Only John knew that."

Sarah slammed her fist into the table, startling the table. She took a deep breath before becoming calmer. "Okay, okay. I'll accept that. I guess I have to. But that just leaves one question. And I already know that you know what it is."

Danny nodded. "You're not going to like the answer."

"If two of them had reverse-engineered copy-cats, then where is David's counterpart?"

"For this one, we'll have to start from the beginning of a different thread altogether." Danny said. "John Connor originated the idea of seven people that could finish his mission at all costs. But he only sent back six. And Cameron was never a factor when she sent herself back."

Danny leaned back and glanced around the room.

"There was one thing that came between Cameron's arrival and this action and that was the L Project, which stands for "Lifeform Project". Humans can't live for millions of years, but David can. I may be good with machines and technology, the best actually, but that's not why I was called the 'Engineer'.

"With Cameron's chip, we had the base work needed to manipulate the human genome. Human DNA can't be read by individual strands in our lifetime, but Sierra Alpha, and to an extent Cameron, had capabilities to influence cells and matter. For Sierra Alpha, it only takes about six seconds to decode anyone's DNA. That means she can hack into the basic atomic structure of anything and bend it to her will. Cameron's is much more basic and compressed. And we managed to clone it into modify it a working system on our level. That became the basis of John's dark little project."

"How can you hack into someone's DNA?" James asked.

"Anything can be considered a computer program to an extent. Human are a series of complex operations that are processed through electrical systems sent throughout our body. It can be treated as such, given the right technology. With Sierra Alpha, she can retain David's current state indefinitely - prevent him from aging, developing disease and the like. But David himself is special, but we don't know to what extent yet."

"What are you getting at?" Sarah was getting anxious.

"It's pretty simple. There were two working prototypes in the form of Azrael and Cameron. But we needed a third."

"My God." Allison gasped, putting her hands to her mouth. "You didn't... I was never told any part of this. You wouldn't do that to one of our own."

"We had to." Danny said dimly. "The Lifeform Project needed an exact end goal. A live human trial had to be created in David's image. Part of his image at least."

"No, no." James said in horror. "That's not right. You can't be playing God like that. What on earth possessed you to think that was an option?"

"We used Cameron's chip, re-engineered it into a human-friendly interface, and implanted the configurations relating to David into a DNA strand. It was our only choice. We took the concept of a terminator and implanted into the genetic framework of a human mind."

"Who?" Sarah said. "Who did you do this to?"

Danny let out a heavy breath. "I said you wouldn't like the answer."

* * *

><p><em>L-L-Listen to me.<em>

_**Listen to me**._

_John._

_J-J-John Connor._

_There isn't much time._

_**Time.**_

_Even though you were raised as human being, you were never one of them._

_**One of them.**_

_**NOT ONE OF THEM.**_

_You are different..._

_It will not be easy... It was never easy. I'm sorry._

_S-SO SORRRRRRY._

_**Only hope.**_

_You are our only hope._

_The result of a million marginal possibilities coming together to form as one._

_As one._

_You were born from Sarah and Kyle, but they never knew what I had done._

_That is why I consider you my greatest creation._

_And my son._

_Finish your mission._

_Your mission is to ensure the survival of Danny Dyson -_

_**KILL DAVID.**_

_Destroy the Ark._

_It is all on you now._

_Finish your mission._

* * *

><p>"Are you alright, son?"<p>

A voice. An elderly voice, almost coming from a distance. Now close. Right next to him.

John opened his eyes to find himself in the cabin of a commercial airplane in flight. Somehow, he was sitting down in the middle of an aisle - leaning against the armrest of an elderly woman who was staring down at him.

Slowly, he got up. Strangely enough, the other passengers didn't pay him any mind through the entire episode. But how did he get here?

"I'm sorry." John said apologetically once he was on his feet again.

"I remember when I first started flying. It takes some getting used to." The woman replied, patting John on the hand.

"I'm sure it does." John said. He had only been on a plane in a handful of occasions.

"The young lady you were with went that way." The woman pointed down the aisle to the rear of the plane.

"Cameron?" John asked. "Was her name Cameron, by any chance?"

"I don't think she was feeling too well either." The woman responded. John took a moment to note a map hanging on the wall nearby. He strolled over to it to see a small map of the plane's compartments. There was no flight number or destination though. John fixated on a small black dot on the map with an attached arrow to it.

**YOU ARE HERE.**

"Good to know. Thanks." John said to the old woman as he started walking down the aisle after Cameron. He remembered everything, the chase, the gunshot, the post-Judgment Day landscape but the question remained: where was he? He looked down at his stomach to see it perfectly intact... was this a strange dream? No. It was too real. He was completely self-aware. He balled his fist repeatedly to prove that point. Maybe the bubble that formed around him and Cameron took them back to the past. Maybe. But if Cameron was here, she would have more answers, he imagined.

John pulled the curtain that separated first class from the next section, and was met with darkness. The plane went black and turbulence began to grip the plane. But there were no screams or complaining from the passengers.

When the lights returned, John stood in shock as he saw nothing but blood around him. All the passengers were dead in their seats. He took a look back to where he came from and saw the same result.

Years of training and analysis took over. There would be a time to process what just happened, but it would be later. Self-preservation was now. He immediately sought out the most athletically-built passengers and began searching them.

_One of these must be the air marshal_. John thought as he combed through the bloodied bodies in the seats. There were no signs of struggle, and the wounds varied. From ripped open mouths to slit throats, John did his best not to gag as the smell of blood entered his nostrils.

There. John retrieved the firearm that the man was licensed to carry and clicked it off safety. Pointing it down the aisle and proceeded with caution.

His heart pounded with each noise that echoed throughout the cabin. He took note of the emerging darkness of the next section as he pulled back the curtain.

_How big was this plane?_

No sooner when he pulled back the curtain when he found himself face-to-face with Cameron.

"Hello." She said curtly.

"Jesus! You scared the crap out of me." John said as quietly as he could. "Where are we and what the hell is going on here?"

"I don't know." Cameron replied. "What does it look like?" She tilted her head in curiosity.

"Looks like something is wrong. Way wrong." John said, monitoring every angle - including the one's behind him. "Where were you?"

"There was a problem in the back." She replied. "But it's all better now."

"C'mon. We need to find and eliminate the threat, before this gets any worse."

"Okay." Cameron replied quietly.

John didn't have time to respond when Cameron gave a powerful kick to his sternum, sending him flying over seven feet down the aisle.

John coughed as he clutched his stomach. He reached over a tried to grab the weapon. But before he knew it, Cameron casually walked over and kicked it out of his reach. And just as promptly, she casually sat down on his stomach, putting all her weight down. Her hands settled down in front of her. She seemed comfortable.

"Cameron... what are you doing..." John coughed.

"You told me to eliminate the threat. You are the threat." Cameron replied with a slight smile.

"Your mission is to protect me..." John reasoned.

"My mission is to ensure the survival of John Connor. You are not John Connor. You're a fake."

The intercom that was normally reserved for the pilot to communicate with his passengers came alive with static. John looked up as Cameron remained stoic. It phased out just as fast, returning the ominous noise that secreted from every facet of the plane.

Mustering his strength, John tried to center all the energy he could into abdomen. With a great effort, he flexed his stomach upward and shrimped his body out of Cameron's grasp.

With great haste, John used all fours to get on his feet, grabbed the air marshal's gun, and began running down the aisle where he came.

He stole a quick look back to see that Cameron just stood there, with that same quiet smile.

"You can't run forever." She called after him. "But I still like chasing you."

With that, the lights shifted to black around him. When they returned, the cabin was abuzz of activity.

John was running as fast as the cramped aisle allowed, but it was only a matter of time before rapid, tiny footsteps were heard right behind him.

_This is it._

John whirled around and threw himself to the floor, hoping to dodge her initial grasp. He let out two rounds from his weapon as he hit the ground.

Margos Sarkissian dropped to the ground, two fresh holes in his chest. He was wearing the same outfit he hand on that day when John broke his neck.

_What the hell?_

"I remember my first kill." The intercom came to life, but it was Cameron's voice instead of the static. "But I never felt what you feel. That rush. That excitement. That feeling."

"What is this?" John yelled out into the cabin.

"Did you ever ask yourself why you felt the need to prove yourself?" Cameron replied. "Your actions as a soldier in the Resistance, why you decided to engage Azrael in the Leviathan, why you decided to launch an impromptu attack on Century, and why everything you touch seems to... wither... and die... like Martin Bedell... like Riley."

John scanned the room at every angle, aiming his weapon down every possible avenue of approach that Cameron could use against him.

"You forced yourself to believe that you were something that you were not." Cameron continued. "But you are not the great leader. You share the same parents, the same name, but you are not John Connor. You acted recklessly trying to fill a destiny that is not in your reach. And hurt those closest to you in the process."

"Maybe..." John said, with a large gulp. "You might be right. But I will see this through. And I know you're not Cameron. Show yourself."

The cabin returned to darkness. John used the chance to stand up, but he couldn't see anything except the darkened skies of nothingness that permeated in the windows.

Within a second, the lights on the cabin shot back on with more power. John squinted his eyes as the bright light turned the inside of the plane almost completely white. They died down... slowly. And John could make out Sierra Alpha's figure as she emerged from the doorway of the adjoining cabin.

"I... know you." John said.

"And I know you." She replied.

"Where are you hiding him?"

"I will not lead you to him." Sierra Alpha replied innocently. "And I know what you are even if you don't."

"Then what am I?"

"You are the last mistake of John Connor." Sierra Alpha replied, tilting her head slightly. Machines never got mad or angry. They only got curious.

"I will find him." John threatened, lowering his weapon. He knew it wasn't any good here. "And I will finish what I started."

"Not if I find you first."

* * *

><p>Cameron followed Samantha up the rickety wooden stairs of the crudely constructed dome-shaped building. The sun was starting to go down in the distance, leaving both in the shadow in created from a mountain nearby. The location was isolated, concealed, far from civilization, safe.<p>

Cameron approved.

They entered the main living area first, passing an assortment of couches and lounge chairs - along with old-fashioned TV and coffee table to complete the room. They passed a large kitchen area, a large bathroom with multiple showers, and several bedrooms.

"Did I tell you?" Samantha said. "This place used to be an armory for the African militia."

They came to a large scanner on a wall. Samantha placed her hand onto it and produced a green response from it. "I think they reasoned they abandoned it had to be strictly economic. This place is was an isolated training site for years, miles away from civilization. But as Africa eroded over the years, this installation had to be just another casualty. It's not a fancy underground facility deep inside a Japanese mountain... but this place has treated me well."

"Where are the others?" Cameron asked.

"We'll see to them shortly."

The door slid open and both woman and machine walked in. It was almost like a morgue, save for its unnatural cleanliness.

It was there that they found John, floating in a tube of greenish liquid that was much like the one Cameron was reconstructed in at Solaris. A large mask attached to a cable was strapped to his mouth and nose, giving him free oxygen that prevented him from drowning. Cameron observed his face twitching for a brief moment.

"He is... dreaming." Cameron said as she approached the chamber.

She took a moment to reflect on her own experience in Solaris. Had that ride on the plane been a part of a dream as well? What was John dreaming about?

"He's been in there for two days." Cameron stated.

"And he'll be in there for two more. At least until his wounds are healed." The Archetype replied. "Let's go back and see to the others."

They both turned to leave before a low rapping sound was heard from inside the chamber.

Cameron turned to see John looking at her through the glass, his hand placed flat on the glass surface.

"That's unusual." Samantha said, seeing what she saw.

Cameron placed her hand on the glass, just opposite from where John's was on the other side. She stared for a few moments in silence before speaking again.

"Let him out."

* * *

><p>Sirisha's unconscious body slid off the chair and slumped to the ground unceremoniously. Both Sierra Alpha and David looked at each other briefly before Sierra Alpha began staring off into nothingness.<p>

"He's awake." Sierra Alpha said out of the blue. "I can... feel him."

"What do you think?" David asked.

"He will be coming... coming here." Sierra Alpha replied. "Coming to this place. It's the logical conclusion."

"Azrael is still unaccounted for."

"But the Ark is still secure. Only he is the threat to us at the moment."

"Do you think he can kill me?" David asked plainly.

"It's a higher probability than most. He is one of a kind... just like her."

"The TOK715 chip that Azrael has in his possession could be weaponized into a viral attack on the Ark's server. We need to be ready"

"It won't happen." Sierra Alpha placed her hand onto David's chest.

"Then we will wait." David said. "_With her, all things are possible_." He added, mockingly.

The lights dimmed again, and both vanished just as quickly as they appeared.


End file.
